Genesis of Bonds
by Writing Ninja
Summary: After an unusual dream, Shinjis' life changes as a complete stranger approches him & NERV to train him along with his fellow Pilots in the use of some weapons known as 'Keyblades'. Can they save the other worlds while saving their own from the Angels?
1. the Dream

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, or Kingdom Hearts or any other anime mentioned in this story, they belong to their respectable owners.

"_Falling….I'm falling…but, it seems more like sinking…when did I get in the water….. I guess I'm might be in LCL, but…I don't smell blood._" As the boy known as Shinji Ikari sank further and further into the murky depths of the unknown, He could not help but try to make sense of this strange dream. "_Why am I here? Why is it so dark? I hope this ends soon- wait am I slowing down?_" When this dawned on him he began to feel a little better. Then he saw something. "_Is that a stained glass mural?" _He thought. Said stained glass mural was in a circular form and seemed to show a design that resembled himself in a somewhat laidback position sleeping by the looks of it with three smaller pictures by his images' right side. One was of a violet hair woman he knew as Misato Katsuragi, the other one was a blonde haired woman he also knew as Ritsuko Akagi, and finally the last one he wished he didn't know as well as the last two the obviously male picture had Black hair like Shinjis' own hair & glasses, this man is known as his father; Gendo Ikari.

"_I don't see why someone would make this in my honor, I'm not really anything that special …..am I?" _As he thought this he noticed he was actually turning some as he got closer to it he then figured out that it wasn't a mural. _"It's a large platform!" _That's when his feet touched down on said platform. Upon doing he placed his hand on it to make sure is was solid enough for him to not have to worry._ "Well it feels solid like an actual floor, that's a good sign." _

"So much to do….."

"Gah, who's there!" Surprise filled the boy as he heard the voiceless words. Now he was on high alert looking in any possible direction for the speaker or possible assailant or something relatively threatening. Being in nothing but a simple white tee-shirt and dark blue pants made him feel vulnerable when he had nothing on hand to defend himself with.

" And so little time….."

"Who are you, where am I, where are you, what do you want with me?"

"The door is still shut, do you think you are ready?"

"Door? What door, what are you talking about?" Suddenly to shinjis' surprise, a light shined down onto the middle of the platform. He didn't know what to think of it at first, so he though he might as well investigate.

"Don't be afraid….take your time, are you ready?" The voice spoke again.

"Uh….I guess so." At that moment three lights descended a few feet away from Shinji, under each light a pedestal rose up. On top of them a weapon laid, just waiting to be held. Shinji took a good look at each weapon: A sword, a shield, and what he assumed was a wand or staff of some kind.

"The power sleeps within you, it gives you form, choose well, for the one you pick will decide your destiny."

"Uh, ok then." The first one Shinji looked at was the sword, when he held it up the strange voice spoke again.

"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?"

Shinji started thinking about it. "It would be nice to have that kind of power I guess, but maybe I should take a look at the other ones…..just in case." So he put the sword down back on the pedestal, taking care not to drop it. When he laid his eyes on the next one, he couldn't help but stare at it. Walking over to examine this one he felt…compelled to pick it, almost like it was calling out to him. When he picked it up the disembodied voice spoke up.

"The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?

As he gave the shield a 'once over', he felt this one was the right one for him as strange as it might have sounded. He gave his answer. "Yes." In an instant the shield turned into a small ball of light and vanished.

"Your path is set, but now you must choose something to give up in exchange."

"Something to give up? Do you mean one of the other weapons?"

"Yes."

"Hey, you answered me for once! Can you tell me where this place is?" Shinji got no response. He sighed "I knew it was too good to be true." He began to think about which one to give up, the staff or the sword. After much thought he made his decision, and walked up to the staff. Once again the voice spoke.

"The power of the mystics. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and Ruin. You give up this power?

"….yes." Once again the weapon disappeared in a ball of light, yet he still had no idea what this was all about.

"You've chosen the power of the guardian, and you've given up the power of the mystics. Is this the form you choose?"

"Uh well I….. I guess so." At those words the pedestals began sinking into the floor, while the floor itself began shaking violently until it shattered like glass underneath him. The force of gravity got a hold of him & pulled him down further & further into the dark abyss hoping that he'll wake up before he falls into something that might cause him harm. Instead, to his relief it was just another platform with a different picture on it. The picture was of two women asleep both with their back to one another; one was smiling softly while the other one was frowning. The strange thing was about the two supposed twins (besides the fact they were both naked) was their long pink hair with what Shinji first thought where some kind of cat ears, only until he got closer did he notice they were in fact horns sticking out of their heads. Shinji's natural reaction to seeing such a sight took over. "AHH, WHY WOULD SOMEONE PUT SUCH A THING ON A PLATFROM!" He said quickly trying to cover the sight from his eyes with only a little crack in-between his finger, 'just so he can see the ground coming' he thought to himself. When Shinji landed on his feet a flash of light was in his hand where the shield from earlier materialized.

"You've gained the power to fight."

"Fight? But….how do you fight using a shield?" Shinji questioned the voice, but got no response once again. So he tried to swing it around to see if it he could figure out how to pull it off. After short while of trial & error Shinji finally got the hang of it. "All right, I think I got it." He said filled with pride over this accomplishment.

"Well done, remember to use this power to protect yourself and others."

"Ok, but there's no one here to protect right now. Unless there's a city ready to spring up here soon."

"…There will be times you have to fight."

Suddenly two big black spots appeared on the ground with two creatures rising up from said spots.

"Keep your light burning strong!"

The creatures took on a completely pitch black colored small child-like form with antennae on the top of their heads along with yellow eyes staring at there future 'victim'. "Wha-what are those things?" Shinjis' outburst was left unanswered, instead one of the creatures leapt straight at shinji with its claws ready to tear away at the surprised boy. Thankfully Shinji remembered his shield, and pulled it up to defend himself from the upcoming onslaught. *schreek* *schreek* schreek* again and again the black thing slashed away at shinjis' shield while the second one just watched on, it continued its assault until shinji finally went on the offence and slammed his shield against the thing intending to get some breathing room, but instead ended up being pulled by too much momentum he didn't realized he put into that one thrust & landed on the creature shield first. To shinjis' surprise the thing dissolved into a small amount of black smoke."Huh, what just …." Suddenly the voice spoke with urgency.

"Look out behind you!"

Shinji quickly turned around only to find the other one he forgot already leaping at him. The brown haired boy held his shield up in time to save his skin, but after the impact it seemed to have gone silent. When he looked from behind his cover he discovered the little black monster had slammed face first into the shield, and ended up quite dazed. Shinji decided to take advantage of this. He quickly grabbed both ends of his shield, raised it above his head, and bashed the thing into black smoke. Even though he was huffing & wheezing he still managed to say "Thank you for the warning."

"Remember: don't let your guard down."

More spots of darkness began to appear on the floor, but instead of producing more of those dark creatures they just keep getting bigger and bigger taking up the entire floor. One had formed underneath Shinji; he was caught by surprise when it started sucking him in. He closed his eyes at the last second before he was in over his head, but was surprised to feel he was falling again. Then from the darkness he saw another platform he was apparently falling at again, to his relief (or disappointment depending on how you look at it.) the person on it this time had cloths on. This one was also a girl like the last platform, however that's were the similarities ended; Instead of pink hair with horns she had black hair with no horns, her eyes were closed like the other ones, she was wearing a sailor-style school uniform the shirt was white while the skirt was green, her hands were close to her chest holding what looked like a shining pink gem. "Well, at least this one is clothed." Upon touching down once again on solid ground he was attacked by more of those shadowy beings, this time there were six ready to strike at any moment. "Oh no, not more!" He got his shield ready, but he found out quickly how much trouble he was in; with this many enemies attacking from different directions plus at random moments made protecting himself even more difficult then before. "Damn, I'm use to taking on one 'thing' at a time not this many-AAAAHH." Two of the 'enemies' were able to slash at his back and left arm hitting the mark and tearing up his shirt. He fell down on one knee using his shield to support his body. He then tried to get back up, when he got back on his feet he started swinging the shield away, Shinji was able to get one or two before they got him from behind again. "I can't keep this up. I….I think this is it."

"The day you will open the door is both near and far."

Shinji was still feeling the pain, but he was still able to follow what the voice was saying.

"So don't fall into despair so soon, keep fighting & don't give in.

Somehow Shinji got some comfort in those words; He got back up again but this time with a more determination evident on his face. Shinji swung & bashed away at every one of those 'things' as best he could; some were sent flying while others were bashed against one another courtesy of the' Shinji express'. When it was over Shinji was the only one still there, but by the end of it he was left with many scratches and gashes. *thud* Shinji was just in too much pain to stand anymore, completely exhausted with no more strength to move, he just laid there thinking. _"This feels too real to be a simple dream, am I gonna die here."_ That's when he saw something the black creatures had dropped earlier; it was a small vile with a green liquid inside, the letters on the bottle read 'POTION, FOR RECOVERING HEALTH. GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN INJURED.' Shinji was skeptical about such a claim, for all he knew it was actually a vile of poison that could make his condition worse, but then again maybe it could be some kind of painkiller, able to numb the pain until he can get out of this bizarre place. After much thought he drank it down hoping for the best, what he didn't expect was his wounds to close up completely along with his strength returning. When he got up he didn't expect to feel so much better, the only indication of his fight was just one or two scratches left and his torn up shirt. "I…I don't believe it. It worked." He took a quick look at his shirt and sighed. "Wish it would of fixed my shirt as well." After turning his attention away from said shirt, Shinji noticed there were a few more potions laying on the floor, so he picked them up and stored them away for safe keeping. "I might need more later on; I guess it's one of those 'better to be safe then sorry' moments."

When he picked up the last one a light flashed down in front of him, it seemed to want to get his attention as it started to move to the other side of the platform. Strangely enough(again) smaller platforms taking on a square shape began to appear all in a row, from the way it was going it seem to be a path for Shinji to walk onto. "I guess I'm supposed to follow it." And so he did, the path lead all the way to yet another platform, the picture on this one was of a woman with violet colored hair Shinji mistook it for Misato, but there was quite the different with this one. This women was wearing something that seem to Shinji like a one-piece swimsuit, with black jeans, fingerless gloves, and black shoes, just by looking at her it seem she practically radiated leadership from the picture alone. After examining the sight, a light shined down on the other side of the platform away from Shinji. Thinking he should follow it he walked towards the light taking one last look behind himself to see the path he came from was gone, as he got closer his shadow grew longer and longer.

"The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes."

This got Shinji to look at his shadow which was now almost as tall as the platform itself. Then the unthinkable happened the shadow began to rise out of the floor expanding long-ways with tendrils forming where the hair is suppose to be. Muscles formed at every part of the colossus being, a large hole in the shape of a heart formed in its stomach that you could see thru as well, and lastly this thing had yellow eyes just like the creatures from earlier.

"But don't be afraid."

Shinji backed away from the monstrosity with fear clearly shown on his face, he kept thinking this couldn't be happening there's no way he could survive against that monster he might as well be fighting one of the 'angels' without his Eva.

"And don't forget….."

"There's no way, but what am I suppose to do there's no where to run to." The decision was quickly taken out of his hands when the colossal shadow raised & slammed its fist down towards Shinji, he only had a moment to act, but he managed to jump out of the way. "I guess I don't have a choice. Again." He jumped at the still planted fist swinging his shield at it trying to do some damage, but it seem to not take notice of him or his attempts. The Giant former shadows' fist didn't move for some time this puzzled Shinji, until he looked down and saw a big black spot underneath the fist, to Shinji relief it didn't suck him down this time, instead several things were coming out of it.

"Not these guys again!" To Shinjis' dismay it was more shadow creatures, even with this he knew he could at least take these things on. For the moment the giant seemed to just watch the fight happening before it. Without Shinji noticing it with each one of these things turning into dark dust clouds he was getting stronger and stronger, the only thing he did notice was that these things were getting easier to defeat. When the last one was gone he turned his attention back to the giant, just in time to see it doing something with the heart shaped hole in its gut. "_What is it doing?" _Shinji thought to himself as the thing seemed to gather up darkness energy on top of that hole almost as if…

"OH NO!" Shinji quickly held his shield up for the upcoming attack. When the colossus gathered enough energy for its attack it thrust its' gut forward, an orb of dark power flew into the air and headed straight for Shinjis' cover, only to be foiled when it hit just the shield where it ricochet off and into the floor. This caught Shinjis' attention. "_Maybe I can use its' own attack against it_." He quickly got his shield up at the ready; the giant seemed about ready to launch another one he just need to be ready when it did, that's when his patience paid off the giant thrusted his gut again launching another orb homing in on Shinji once again. This time his shield was ready to strike, when the orb got within striking distance he thrusted the shield forward and hit the thing back into the air where its' flight path was changed to going straight into the giants face. Even when it was hit with its' own attack it still didn't register on it as damaging the mighty beast, yet still it launched another orb at its opponent. "_Jeez even the 'Angels' show some pain_." He thought to himself as he sent another orb at the giants' face, still no sign of pain at any point of contact. Now Shinji was sure he was ready for the next attack. "All right, I just need to send the next one at it again." When the energy was released this time; it sent three orbs at him at once. Shinji could only think one thing at that moment "_CRAP!" _He still got ready to try to send the orbs back at it, with one quick wide swing he was able to send two out of three orbs back, but the third one knocked him down on his rear. The other two orbs made contact with its face, this time it showed the amount of pain it was in by falling down on its front only stopping when its clawed hands were extended to prevent it from crashing down face first. When Shinji noticed this he figured this might be his only chance to win, he quickly pulled out one of his potions from earlier and down it, then got up ready and able. Gripping his shield tightly with both hands he charged full speed at the giants face, with a one last scream of determination he swung his weapon with all his might smashing it across the giants face, in that split-second he made contact with his shield he could of sworn he saw a flash of light resembling lightning. The giant began to stand up straight on its knees wallowing in pain, Shinji jumped back a bit when his shield disappeared in an orb of light, that's when he was grabbed from below by dark tendril from a darkness that was beginning to form on the platform.

"But don't be afraid."

The giant began to waver some; this would have worried Shinji if he wasn't panicking about the tendrils grabbing him, by the time he realized the tendril were just holding him in place it was too late.

"You hold one of the mightiest weapons of all."

With no more strength to hold itself up, the giant began to fall down to Shinjis' dismay it was on top of him. He looked up just in time to see it falling on him, but at the same time it was turning into dark smoke just the same as the others just not fast enough for Shinji to not feel it. Although he didn't feel the impact he felt something just as bad, the moment it turned to black smoke the smoke seemed to grab at him and began to pull him down into the blackened floor choking him all the way down.

"So don't forget:"

Shinji continued to struggle trying with all his might to get free with no success, he panicked more trying to scream for help only to end up unheard as the tendrils grip around his throat tightened more. Before he blacked out completely he heard the voice say:

"You are one of three who will open the door."

Shinji woke up screaming his lungs out, before he realized he was safe again. His screaming didn't go unnoticed when his guardian Misato rushed to the door slamming it open. "Shinji, what wrong, are you alright?"He looked up at her with a look of bewilderment at first; he then took a calming breath and answered her. "I….I think so, but what was all that?"

Misato sighed with relief and then said "That's good, well I wouldn't worry about it, nightmares do go away over time after all."

"But it felt too real to be just a simple dream or nightmare Misato, I mean I got injured badly and felt it and ended up swallowed up by this big black giant thing!"

"Shinji it's alright," She stepped closer to the boy and put a comforting smile and hand on his shoulder. "Your safe now, everything's alright."

Scratching the back of his head some he began to get up to get ready "Yeah I guess your right." "That's the spirit." Misato responded. It was then Shinji noticed something weird. "Uh Misato, why are you up at this time without the usual wakeup routine?"

"Huh….Oh well actually it's pretty late in the morning, you where sleeping so peacefully I just didn't have the heart to wake you up yet. I was just coming over here to wake you when you scream."

"Oh thank you, but what time is it-WHAT?" When he looked at the time he knew he was going to be in trouble considering he was five minutes away from being late.

"OHNOHONOHONOHONO, I GOTTA GET DRESSED NOW!" within record time he was out the door, but not without saying bye to Misato. "Take care Shin-chan." She called out, when she heard a loud groan from outside she couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

Elsewhere far away from Tokyo-3 on board a grand space ship somewhere in a place that seem so much like space itself a man stood up from his seat with one thing in mind he felt something, something he hadn't felt in a long time of waiting "Well, looks like it finally time. Computer," at that moment many of the controls where whirring to life when a voice spoke up."

"Ah come on, you know I don't like it when you call me that." The voice sounded like a young girls' voice.

"My apologies Nini, but it's finally time."

"Really? So it finally happened, those two special ones are awakened."

"Well sorta, but I feel something odd there, almost like there's another one as well."

"But you told me it was just supposed to be two special people from…from…you know you never really told me where they were supposed to be living in."

"Right, well it's time to go check it out. Nini, set a course for Tokyo-3."

"Right away sir."

End of chapter 1.


	2. a strangers arrival

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or Kingdom Hearts or any other anime mentioned in this story; they belong to their rightful owners.

Class was just the same as ever, Boring & dull to every other student listening to the lecture, but to Shinji it just got his mind off most of his problems unfortunately this time it didn't help him forget most of the dream he had. _"I can't get that dream out of my head; it seemed too real to just be another dream." _He thought. _"Argh why can't I-" _*Beep* "What the?" Shinjis' message alert on his terminal went of; he looked at the senders name and recognized it as his friend Toji. '_Yo Shinji, what's up why were you late today?_' Before answering he checked to see if the teacher was paying any attention to him. Thankfully he was too busy to notice him. _'I'll tell you about it later after class.' _Just when he was turning his attention back to the teacher *Beep* another message came up, this time it was from another friend of his; Kensuke. _'Hey Shinji, what's with you being late today, was it Nerv business again, don't you hold back from me! ' _He quickly typed back. _'No it wasn't 'Nerv stuff', I'll tell you & Toji about it after class.'_

*Beep*

'_Ah :-( Come 'on Shinji you can tell me if it's Nerv or not I won't tell anyone, I promise.'_

*Beep*

'_Really Kensuke, it doesn't involve Nerv, I'll tell you about it after class.'_

*Beep*

'_Come on, I know your not suppose to talk about it to civilians, but I'm a really good secret keeper.'_

*Beep*

'_I'm serious IT DOESN'T INVOLE NERV, I promise to tell you & Toji about it later.'_

*Beep*

'_Both of you stop before the teacher finds out!'_

"Mister Ikari." Shinji looked up from his terminal. "Am I boring you?" The teacher said with a stern angry look plastered on his face. "Uh, no sir." The teacher ordered him to step away from his terminal without laying a finger on it, and walked right up to it. "Then tell me Mr. Ikari; why were you passing messages to Mr. (_Oh big surprise here_) Suzuhara & Mr. Aida?" With no excuse, Shinji stayed silent not wanting to make things worse. "Hmm, very well then. Toji Suzuhara, Kensuke Aida, and Shinji Ikari; stand in the hallway now, and don't forget the buckets boys." Both said boys stood up first the black haired tall boy Toji along with the blonde haired boy with glasses Kensuke, walked out with Shinji to get the buckets when their teacher called out to them saying "By the way boys, next time try turning down the volume so the message alert doesn't give you away." The class giggled at the threes' misfortune.

Soon the boys where standing outside of the classroom holding buckets filled with water, it was quiet until… "Told you guys he'd find out."

"Maybe Toji, but the warning was too late just the same."

"Hey I just tried to keep you two out of trouble."

"Yeah well it doesn't help when the messenger arrives too late with the retreat order now does it!"

"Hold it Kensuke, Why the hell should it be my fault when you never stopped badgering Shinji here with whatever the hell you were talking about?"

"Uh guys."

"What the hell makes you think I was badgering him, for all you knew I was just asking him just a few details about why he was late today. Not that it had anything to do with Nerv or anything like that this time."

"Guys really its ok-"

"AHA, I knew it you were badgering him!"

"Guys please, keep it down."

"What? What proof do ya' have on that?"

"Guys come on'."

"Only the fact anything military related, you can't stop asking about or recording with that camera of yours! And that's just for starters."

"….Be that as it may, that wasn't what I was talking about with Shinji here."

"Actually that's exactly what you kept asking about."

"See, what I tell ya'!"

"I'd hate to interrupt you're little moment here." The moment the new voice spoke up the three boys turned to find their teacher standing in the doorway with a crossed looked. "But theirs just one little issue I'd like to bring to your attention, NO TALKING DURRING CLASS!" All three bowed their heads saying "Sorry sir."

"So about this trip to Tokyo-3…." The owners' voice Nini appeared on a nearby monitor to talk face to face with the captain of the Gummy ship. The face of the girl was pretty but she almost resembled a ghost, her hair was snow white with blue highlights, her eyes a sky blue color and her skin looked to be pale white however despite this fact she looked to be healthy and happy. She wore a long light green dress with a symbol of Infinity on the front close to the collar of the dress. The captain turned to the girls' monitor and spoke "Yes what about it, is there something troubling you about Tokyo-3?"

"Well maybe, but I might have a few questions about it first if you don't mind me asking, for starters what's it like, and how is it different from the Tokyo I know of?"

"Huh? That's not like you, since when do you need to ask me about a world like this?"

"…"

"Nini?"

"I'll tell you after you tell me about Tokyo-3 first. I promise."

He sighed before answering. "Ok then; the city is pretty high tech for starters, you'd probably like it, but it's known as Tokyo-3 because the original Tokyo in that world went under some sorta disaster I think. I can't really say how it happened, I was just a child and on a different world on that horrible day. Now then, what's on your mind?" He knew something was up, there were only two reasons Nini would resort to asking questions like this: first off she could easily link up with a network if the world had the internet available, second she was more then smart enough to find the information some other way as for how he figured she might of picked it up from syncing with other gummy ship computers or something like that, she never really told him how. "Well to start I can't get any info on Tokyo-3, only the coordinates' you gave me show up in the databanks." This got his attention. "What? That shouldn't happen…..unless; someone locked away the only existing digital info on it after I left." Nini shook her head. "Not locked more like wiped out, I can't seem to find any trace of the data's' existence no matter where I look. Its' almost as if someone doesn't want Tokyo-3 found." The captain began to think about it. "Hmm, I wonder…." Nini looked at him with concern "I'm worried, what if something bad happens to you? I can't do much for you from here being nothing but data support, but maybe if I-"

"Nini!" Shocked a little by the slight outburst Nini had her attention back to her captain whos' face went from stern to a softened look. "Don't worry so much about it, I have my role and you yours, besides you do great work even if you can't be on the field with me. The information you collect can help out far more then just going into a fight blindly uninformed on the situation. It's like my brother always said 'Have a plan on hand, or you loose your head.' " Although she was taken back by the sudden outburst she had calmed down enough to take a non-existent calming breath after his little speech. Once she finished, she spoke once again to her captain. "Thank you, 'sensei'." The captain was taken back by the sudden 'sensei' nickname. "Nini, why did you call me sensei?" With a bright smile on her face she answered "Well, I thought I'd help you get use to the idea of being called sensei, considering we're going to go see your future students after all." At first it didn't sink in until he thought about it some more, he started laughing a little at the thought, 'him a sensei' back when he was younger it once came up as a joke between him & friends but he never thought it would actually happen even under these circumstances. "Well if that's the case I'd better go get the rust off my battle skills, Nini I'll be in the training room call me when we get there, Ok?"

"Yes Sir Marcus Sensei."

"…..after that I was being pulled down by these black tentacle things, then the next thing I know I'm sitting up on my futon screaming." As Shinji finished his story he waited to see what his friends thought about it. Shinji, Kensuke and Toji were just sitting in the middle of P.E on break from their first set of running track along with their fellow male classmates. "That sounds like one really crazy dream Shinji, kind 'a gives me the creeps thinking about it now." Kensuke said while visibly shivering. "Ah come on Shinji, it was just a dream right, I mean who ever heard of a dream where you actually feel pain in?" Said Toji not believing that such a thing could happen. "Actually Toji, I heard somewhere that there are such rare dreams events where you feel everything that's happening to you." Toji looked at Kensuke with a disbelieving look. "You can't be serious, since when-"

"All right students' breaks' over, back on the track!"

"Look like we'll have to pick this up later." Kensuke said with a humph. Right away the three began jogging on the track; Toji taking lead once again showing off his athleticism while Shinji & Kensuke behind him trying to keep pace. However even after talking about it and exercising to get his mind off it, Shinji still had lingering feelings from the dream; no matter what he did he could still feel those claws cutting into his back, his muscles aching from attacking & defending himself from said claws, and worst of all the choking sensation near the end of it.

It was later after school was over; Shinji was walking back to Misatos' apartment along with Kensuke & Toji. "So why didn't you guys visit the apartment this time? Usually you're both right by the door waiting to see Misato." Shinji asked his friends, only to get slight whimpering sounds from the both of them before they started moping. "We got up pretty late ourselves. There wasn't enough time to swing by your place this time." Kensuke mumbled out, while Toji merely nodded in agreement. Shinji didn't exactly know what to say, sometimes to him it seemed they only hung around him just because of Misato, but still they were his friends before they found out about her, right? "Well there's... always next time, I guess." He hesitantly said to the two boys. They were quick to responds with odd stares at Shinji at first before grins began to form on their faces. "He got a point their." Kensuke said. "Or we could cut out the middle man and go see her now." Toji said with a cheshire cat-like grin. "Sorry guys, but she's at the Nerv base waiting for me to get there." Shinji said to his friend's disappointment. Afterwards he said his goodbyes and took off to the Nerv base where he'd go thru more simulation combat training, and sync tests until another angel shows up, then he'll have to go attack it before it does too much damage to the city, thankfully the civilians go straight to the underground shelters in case of an attack. Yet…even if he knows he's saving lives by getting into his Eva, it still was just him taking orders, never getting a chance to choose for himself. _'Well except for that dream I had last night, it wasn't much of a choice though.' _After all he thought whoever heard of choices in a dream that affects the rest of your life as you know it.

"Nini, can you hear me?"

"_Loud and clear."_

"Good, I've safely made it to the landing point. Are you sure about the info?"

"_Yes sir._"

"…."

"_Is there something wrong?_"

"…..I'm hoping there won't be one when I get there."

"_Why, Sir Marcus?_"

"An old wound may reopen if I go there Nini."

"_Old wound?_"

"Ancient history, I'll tell you about it later."

"_Ah, that's what you always say._"

"And don't I always keep my word."

"…_..yes, but you should really break that habit of yours._"

"Well I guess so, but if you listen in on the com link long enough I'm sure you'll find out a few things, you're the smartest between us after all."

"_Maybe, but I don't have the kind of experience you do._"

"Well then, I guess that makes us both geniuses in our own rights."

"_Hehehe, that's true._"

"_Still, I'm not looking forward to meeting up with that bastard again._"

After Shinji made it to the Nerv geo-front, he met up with Misato at the lounge room. "Hey Shin-chan, how did things go?" "Same as usual I guess." He said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. She gave him a disbelieving look. "So you didn't have any problems dream wise?" She asked him. "Well no not really, but….. I still can't get it out of my mind." To Misato Shinji seemed to be in some turmoil over nothing, but before she could say anything to the poor boy, another woman in an opened lab coat walked right in carrying a clipboard with her, She was blonde with green eyes underneath the lab coat anyone could see she was wearing a blue dress with a black skirt. Upon stepping in Misato and Shinji quickly drew their attention to her. "Ah, just the two people I needed to see." She said. Misato giggled embarrassingly before saying. "Uh, sorry Risuko we meant to go straight to the Eva hanger, but oh you know how these things go." "Oh sure Misato I mean it not like the rest of us aren't **busy** today with all the paperwork as well as the huge amount of data to go over after the last Angel attack, not to mention the Conference coming up in a couple of days that someone on our staff has to attend on Nervs' behave!"

"Sheesh, no need to vent it out on me."

After composing herself the Chef Scientist of Nerv spoke again. "Sorry about that, anyway we still need to get the sync test over with, so Shinji if you would." The Boy being addressed showed his acknowledgment by saying 'Yes ma'am."

Moments later, Shinji was now standing in the locker room just finishing putting on his plug-suit. To anyone that looked at the suit for the first time would think that such a thing would not fit properly on a fourteen year old, considering the plug-suit fit him loosely, however with a simple push of a button on the wrist the suit decompresses until it fits skin tight on the wearer. Shinji stepped out of the locker room and went straight to the hanger bay where he would proceed with the test, once he made it to the hanger bay where Nerv kept their Evangelions (or as some would call'em their over-sized windup monsters) he found that Misato was waiting for him.

"Alright Shinji, Risuko said she's ready for you so whenever your ready; get in the entry-plug and we'll get started."

"Yes ma'am."

Sometime into the test: "Hmm."

"What's wrong?" Misato said to Risuko. "There's something wrong with Shinjis' sync ratio." She responded while still checking the monitors. "Well, what's wrong with it?" The only response Misato got was…"Take a look for yourself." What Misato saw was the gauge (that represented the pilots' sync ratio with their Eva's) was going slightly haywire the ratio kept rising up from Shinjis usual standards levers to dropping down to near de-syncing levels. "How is that even possible?" Misato asked "I don't know, but whatever it is, Commander Ikari won't be happy with it."

"Why not?"

"Because this compromises the ability of the pilot, honestly who wouldn't know that info."

"Well, excuse me for being new here."

"Really, new blood? I didn't hear anything about….."

At that moment Misato and Risuko found out two things; one: Misato should pay more attention when she's talking to someone without looking. Two: She just gave away info to non-Nerv personnel. When this dawned on the both of them they quickly turned around to the new comer Misato was just talking to. Misato figured just by the voice alone the person was male, and by looking at said person she could definitely confirm it. The man before her and Risuko was definitely not a member of Nerv. This man had green hair with dark brown eyes. His outfit consisted of a black opened jacket with a blue tight shirt underneath it, he wore brown loose pants along with black boots, but what was really odd about his outfit was the silver armor he was wearing on his left arm. Both women were speechless for a moment before Risuko found her voice "Who are you, you're not allowed in here!" The man responded with…

"Oh sorry I didn't mean to scare you ladies, my name is Marcus and I'm here to see Shinji."

_End of chapter_


	3. Negotiations

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or Kingdom Hearts or any other anime mentioned in this story, they belong to their rightful owners.

Things were going according to plan so far he thought, for now he had those old fool members of Seele wrap around his finger. As long as he kept 'feeding' them the usual crap about doing things their way, and following 'their' orders to the letter, then when the time comes he'll take their original plan for human instrumentality for his own version. At the moment he was strolling down the halls heading to his office with a blue haired girl named Rei by his side feeling good after his last chat with said old fools, Rei for her part was glad to spend some time talking with Commander Ikari. Although this time there wasn't much to talk about. To Gendo it always reminded him of the time he spent with his wife Yuri, talking, working in the lab together, strolling around, and eating out whenever the chance arose. Although his wife is gone now he can at least still see her face in- "Commander Ikari."

"Yes Rei?"

"Sorry, but I need to report to the hanger bay for my synch test."

"Very well, now go on before you're late."

"Yes sir."

As Rei took her leave, Gendo continued to his office where his Deputy Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki was waiting for him. "Well, you look like you're in a good mood today. I'm guessing the last meeting went well?"

"Let's just say 'we came to an agreement'."

"So I would assume everything's right on schedule."

"Of course, everything's going exactly as-"

*Beep** Beep* *Beep*

At that moment the Nerv's comlink went off, the upcoming call was coming from the Eva hanger bay. Already the rare smile that was previously on Gendos' face was gone, replaced once again with his usual scowl. He immediately responded to it. "What is it Dr. Akagi?" He answered in the usual monotone he's well known for.

"Uh commander, we seem to be having some trouble down here." Responded Risuko with some nervousness in her voice.

"Well whatever's the problem with Shinji now is captain Katsuragis' business."

"Its not Shinji per-say, but-"

"But what!" Commander Ikari now said getting more irritated by the minute. Misato at this point jumped into the conversation behind Risuko saying… "Commander there's someone here that wants to talk to you and Shinji."

"Captain Katsuragi! You know there's NOT supposed to be any civilians in the base UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES."

"Yes I know sir but-"

"No excuses!"

"Jeez, just as rude as ever, how about letting 'em finish a sentence for crying out loud." At that moment Gendo felt incredibly angry just from hearing that voice….that familier sounding voice, but just as the answer was coming to him the owner of said voice appeared on the monitor next to Misato. The look on Gendos' face could 'a scared the 'Angels' back to wherever they came from.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!" He practically screamed slamming his open hands onto the table.

As Rei continued walking the hall to the hanger bay, she couldn't help but feel guilty. "_Perhaps I should tell commander Ikari about the dream I had last night._" She thought to herself, but something seemed to tell her not to for reasons she could not understand. It didn't make any sense to her, I know I should not keep such information from the commander she thought but then again what was the point. After all it was just an odd dream nothing worth wasting his time about. Just as she finished that thought she bumped straight into something and fell on her rear.

"Ah jeez, I'm sorry about that, are you all right?" The person she now realized she bumped into said with concern in his voice. Without missing a beat Rei picked herself up ignoring the extended hand offering help, and without saying a word or even looking at the person continued walking to her destination.

"Hey, hold on a moment."

She stopped. "Look I know I probably shouldn't be asking this after knocking you down an all, but can you help me? I'm trying to find the Nerv commanders room, do you know where that is?"

This was new to Rei, it wasn't often someone would ask for help like this of her. She didn't quite know how to respond to it at first, but then again she never did try talking with anyone else except the commander (and on the rare occasion Shinji). She then made her decision, and turned around.

"I can lead you there." At the moment she looked at the man she felt something weird about him, just by looking at him she could tell right away he wasn't part of Nerv, but at the same time not someone that intends to do any harm to her. It was almost like a feeling of-

"Thank you, I really appreciate the help."

She was almost surprised when her train of thought was interrupted. Instead of answering she walked off in the direction she was coming from, and only said "please follow me". So he did. As he was following the stranger thought he'd try to start a conversation. "I'm Marcus by the way; I don't think I caught your name."

"Because I did not give it to you." She said without even turning around.

"Oh, uh right. (_Well that could 'a gone better)_" he thought to himself at the last part.

"…..its Rei."

"Hmm?"

"…My name, its Rei Ayanami."

"…Rei Ayanami, that's a very nice name." Marcus said with a slight smile.

"What? Are you serious, HE's back?"

"Yes Fuyutsuki, unfortunately Marcus has returned."

"But I thought he died or-"

"No. He took off and has been missing until now."

"….."

"What?"

"You seem a bit upset. (_More so then usual anyway.)"_ Kozo said but keeping the last part to himself.

"…"

"Do you want to talk about-"

"No."

*knock* *knock*

"Come in." From that very moment Gendo knew things were going to be hell for him, just letting this man into his office seemed to give him an ulcer. Well he thought might as well hear what the hell he has to say, maybe if I'm lucky he'll say he's dying of a slow and painful disease or something along those lines. The man in question strolled into the room and stood halfway from the door to Gendos' desk, he seemed to be checking around the room for something. "Their aren't any sentries or automated guns ready to fire at my command here." At this info the green haired man calmed down some.

"Oh, well now I'm a little disappointed, I mean I wasn't expecting a parade or anything, but not even a last minute attempt on my life? That's not like you."

"I'm afraid we didn't have time to set one up."

"Whatever you say, Gendo. Hey Kozo, good to see your still hanging around the place." Marcus said waving at the addressed man.

"Hello Marcus, good to see you too." Fuyutsuki got a dirty look from the commander.

"So…" Gendo said now addressing the hated man in front of him. "Marcus, what brings you back?"

"Before I get to that I must tell you two something." There was an uneasy silence in the room.

"Gendo….. I am dying of an almost incurable space disease that only someone who truly hates me can cure." He said with a serious face except for the fact that he's lips kept trying to break into a grin. Which Gendo quickly picked up on. He responded by pulling out a hidden handgun in his desk and firing away.

"Misato, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find out what just happened back there. What, your not curious yourself Risuko?" Not to long ago Misato was caught off guard by this 'Marcus' guy, then she was thrown for a loop when the commander of all people blew a gasket just at the sight of him. But the most confusing of all was when commander Ikari told him to meet with him in his office, and moments after Marcus left Misato followed him to get to the bottom of this with Risuko in tow.

"Of course I do, but I'm usually smart about these kinds of things."

Misato gave her a pouty face saying "You're no fun."

"Where's the fun in getting in trouble with the commander over something like this?" Risuko said now getting upset the closer they got to Gendos' office.

"Come on, don't you think its odd how the commander just up and blew his top like that, and then told him to meet him in his office without letting either of us help lead him there."

"What I find odd is the fact that the security division didn't come to arrest him or try anything on him yet."

"That is odd. I can't even get in contact with them on the phone line, but I got one to top that."

"Oh, and what's that?"

"Why is Rei helping him?"

When Risuko heard this she actually stopped in place with a confused look on her face. "…Misato, could you repeat that? I don't think I heard you right. Did you say 'Rei was helping him'?"

"I know how you feel, but I saw the whole thing."

"WHAT, when?"

"It was at that last corner we stopped at, you where busy telling me this was a bad idea or something. I really wasn't paying any attention to it."

"Oh, so you were tuning me out? Is that it?" The now upset scientist said.

"No I was too busy being shocked by the fact Rei was even talking to a complete stranger, and helping him like that."

"…..Ok you got a point."

They remained quiet the rest of the way, keeping their distance from this green haired stranger until he made it inside Gendos' office. "Well, I guess that's it, come on Misato we gotta go get Rei ready for her synch tests."

"Oh no were not going, not just yet. Besides couldn't you get Maya to cover for you?"

"That's an abuse of my position CAPTAIN Katsuragi, and such misuse of my position would be wrong on all degrees. Besides Maya's already covering for me."

"…..then what was all that 'abuse of power talk' all about then?"

"She did it as a FAVOR to me."

"Now why didn't I think of that?"

They began to tiptoe to the door slowly and quietly trying not to make too loud a noise. When they got to the door they put their ears as close to the door as possible without drawing attention.

"_Great I can't hear a thing._" Risuko whispered.

"_Good thing I've had a lot of practice in this._" Misato whispered back.

"_What, since when?_"

"_Shhh! I can't hear them._"

"_Well could you at least tell me what their saying?_"

Misato nodded, and listened carefully giving Risuko the details to the best of her ability. Risuko decided to step back a bit to let Misato work.

"_So….Marcus what brings you back? Before I get to that I must tell you two something._"

"_Wow, you're really good at that._"

"_Gendo, I am frying on an almond taste disease that only barnone who truly mates me can cure._"

"…_.I take back what I said. That didn't make any scene whatsoever. _"

"_So I need more work on-_"

Suddenly she heard a small clicking sound that almost sounded like-

"Risuko get down!" She almost screamed out tackling her friend to the ground when the sound of gunfire filled the room and hallway as the bullets broke passed the door and into the adjacent wall. Once the bullets stopped flying Misato helped Risuko get up off the floor.

"That was too close. Risuko are you ok?"

"I'm fine, but what was that all about, I mean what did he say to get the commander angry enough to shoot him?"

"I don't know, but at least with the bullet holes we can see inside now."

Meanwhile inside the room the two were looking into, Gendo was still in the same position he was when he fired his handgun. The man on the receiving end turned out to be unharmed, with the exception of a bleeding cut on his cheek from a bullet that grazed him.

"_SIR MARUS! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?_" Nana panicked over the communicator.

He whispered back "I'm fine, but make sure the security doesn't come here anytime soon, I really don't want to needlessly beat the hell out of them."

"_Ok, but please be more carful."_

"Don't worry; I've got the best protection."

Gendo took notice of his little conversation deciding to acting on it later, but for now there was one nuisance to deal with. "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT MAKING JOKES LIKE THAT!"

Marcus couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "You're right, but then again you're the only one I though for sure would get a laugh out of it."

"As much as I would like that to happen, I'd prefer to do the deed myself if at all possible."

"So shooting at me is the second best thing for you then?"

"Correct."

"Hmm, you haven't changed as much as I thought, but enough of that. lets get down to business."

"Very well then."

"Hey Risuko, what do you think their talking about?"

"How should I know! You're the one who's suppose to be good at this."

"Calm down, I just want to make sure you're hearing what I'm hearing."

"And what ARE you hearing Misato."

"Well it sounds like something to do with something called a keyblade or something like that, but that doesn't make any sense."

"Wait, what was that Misato?"

"Uh, what are you two doing?"

Caught by surprise, both Misato & Risuko thought they were busted by a passing guard. But to their surprise it turned out to be-

"Shinji? What're you doing here?" Misato said out of surprise.

"Well my sync test is over and Rei's test probably started, I thought I'd wait in the locker room for anything else I'd have to do when I saw you two sneaking off and I guess curiosity got me to follow you."

"Curiosity almost got us killed just now." Risuko retorted not so much at Shinji, but at the only other person in the hallway.

"What, I heard it in time didn't I!"

"_Shhh, are you trying to get us caught._"

Misato quickly covered her mouth, thinking they were busted already she decided to look inside using the bullet holes again. To her surprise they didn't seem to notice, or didn't care there was someone by the door listening.

"Well looks like we're in the clear." Almost immediately after she said that-

"THERE'S NO WAY I'M ALLOWING THAT!"

The three 'sneaks' were startled from the sudden outburst, and peeked inside to see what the commotion was all about.

"Gendo just listen to-"

"Did you lose your mind back in that whatever space-thing you call it!"

"The lanes in between?"

"WHATEVER! I'M NOT LETTING YOU ANYWHERE NEAR REI!"

"And what about your son?"

"Irrelevant, Captain Katsuragi is taking care of him now."

"…I take back what I said earlier, YOU'VE BECOME AN EVEN BIGGER PRICK THEN BEFORE! I mean not even caring for your son, I realize it was hard loosing Yui-"

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY HER NAME IN FRONT OF ME, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!"

"SINCE WHEN GENDO, WHEN SHE PASSED AWAY!... I'VE KNOWN HER LONGER THEN EITHER OF YOU TWO!... So don't tell me I have no right, a friend always has a right.

Gendo remained silent, not really up for continuing this without opening up more old wounds, especially his own.

"Listen, how about this, we'll continue this conversation later, its been a long trip and I'm tired."

"…."

"What?"

"If you're planning on monitoring us, forget it."

"Actually I'd prefer to observe your Eva pilots in action."

"For what purpose?"

"To evaluate their fighting skills. I may be able help improve their combat capabilities if I can get a general idea how they fight this enemy of yours."

"….Very well then. But if you interfere in anyway I'll personally put you in your well deserved grave."

"As much as I'd like to see you try, I'll abide by your rules for now."

"Agreed. KATSURAGI AND DOCTOR AKAGI! REPORT IN HERE NOW!"

Marcus could already tell the two mentioned women where already freaked out from being discovered without even looking at them. When the door opened he expected the two women, however he didn't expect to see two women **and** a young teen with them.

"Well, it appears everyone is here already. As mad as I should be for you three listening in this actually makes the explaining the situation even easier. "

Ignoring the look of daggers Gendo was giving his two subordinates, and walked up to Shinji with a smile reaching his hand out to shake and said…

"Hello Shinji, I'm Marcus."

End of chapter 3

Note: Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. I got sidetracked some with the new game releases last month. LBP2 & Dead Space 2 are a blast, anyway thank you for reading.


	4. The Simulation

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion Kingdom hearts, or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners.

Quick note: I'm sorry for the delay, I have no real good reason for this chapter coming up late. anyway enjoy the new chapter.

This was all so strange to Shinji. First that weird dream he STILL can't get out of his head, then some strange man manages to sneak into the Nerv base and then says he knew his mother Yui as his friend, from who knows how long ago. At the moment the man in question was just walking calmly down the halls with the three Nerv members that not too long ago got chewed out by their commander for eavesdropping on his conversation. The group remained silent until-

"So how much of that conversation did all of you hear?"

"Not much, it didn't seem to make any sense to me."

"Misato, don't admit to it!"

"What's the point trying to pretend we didn't Risuko, both the Commander and, Marcus right?"

"Yes."

"Right, they already busted us. Marcus here is just nicer about it."

"….Point taken. So could you explain what all that 'Keyblade' stuff was all about?"

"Well I guess I could, but not here."

"Why not?"

"Because, Doctor Akagi was it?"

"That's right."

"Right and you're name is Ms. Katsuragi, right?"

"Just Misato is fine, I can't really stand that formality stuff."

"Ok then Misato it is, anyway I can't talk about it here because there could be too many people listening when I do."

"Why should that matter, uh Marcus sir?" Shinji said finally speaking to the addressed man.

"Well Shinji, lets just say it's a really bad thing if too many people hear about what I have to say. So for now I'd like to check on your piloting abilities."

"There nothing really that special."

"Oh come' on Shinji your just down playing yourself, you've gotten better since the first time you fought." Misato said trying to get the boy more confident. Then Risuko spoke up.

"Well regardless Shinji has already done his sync test for today, and besides that we already have another pilot in testing right now it would take awhile before she's finished , not to mention we'd have to re-setup Unit-01 for any other tests, so unfortunately he can't show you his skills just yet."

"I see, well may I at least take a look at the other pilots skills since she is already set up."

"I don't see why not, but remember what the Commander told you about interfering."

"Don't worry I won't do anything I shouldn't."

With that said and done, they proceeded to walk to the hanger bay.

Rei could hardly concentrate, there was too much going threw her head at the moment. From weird dreams to now strange feeling she didn't experience before now just from looking at a man she never met before, but then why did it feel like she knew he was not a threat.

"Rei is something wrong, your concentration's off."

"…Nothing, I'm fine."

Maya began to think to herself '_That's strange, according to these reading she's giving off the same synchronization problems Shinji was just having…..what could this mean?_' Almost immediately after she thought that the door behind her opened up with a group of four people entering.

"Maya, what are the results from Rei's current synch test?"

"Oh Se- Dr. Akagi welcome back, the results aren't good, Rei seems to have the same sync problem as Shinji."

Without any of the scientists noticing Marcus cracked a small smile, the only other person who noticed this was currently walking up to him with a slightly upset look on her face.

"What're you smiling about?"

"Nothing Misato, I think I have a pretty good idea what's causing the sync problems."

"Don't tell me you're behind this."

"Nope, but I can't say what it is here."

"Does it have anything to do with what you wanted to talk to the three of us about earlier?"

"Yup, but again not here I can't let too many people hear about it. I might even have to talk to Rei as well when this is over."

"Well Ok then, but try not to piss off the commander too much, from the reaction earlier he seems to take it out on you, but he could just as easily take it out on us in a less violent way if you know what I mean."

"Yeah…, I know how that's like, don't worry I'll do my best to try to make him as less pissed at me as possible."

Misato sighed "I guess that's close enough."

Even with the sync problems the test seemed to go well for Rei; however before she tried to get out of the entry-plug the comm-link showed Risukos' face on the screen. "Hold on Rei, were going to do something a little different this time." Rei found this odd but decided to follow the orders she answered with a silent nod. "All right, now we're going to set up a battle simulation to test out your current skills."

"Understood."

"Your target will be the first attacking Angel, do what you can to neutralize your target while keeping the damage to a minimum."

"Roger."

Soon the sound of Risukos' unnaturally hi-speed typing was in the air, putting in commands for the battle simulator from hazardous conditions to all the data of the gathered on the Angel in just under a minute. This really surprised Marcus.

"Wow, impressive typing."

"Thank you." Risuko said without taking her eyes off the screen. She then finished up the program saying "Initiating simulation, get ready Rei."

"Roger." Immediately after she answered her view screen showed Tokyo-3 set as the site of battle. The main monitor in the control room began to display the site from different angles, just looking at the screen reminded Shinji of that first time in the Unit-01, it didn't help the virtual sky was set to nighttime.

'…_.just like the first time' _he mumbled to himself. As if on cue Eva Unit-00 appeared, Marcus took a good look at this Eva; it looked to be humanoid, it towered over most of the building in Tokyo-3, covered in blue armor with white parts here and there. On its shoulders there seemed to be some kind of rectangular 'plates' sticking out reaching up way over the giants head, it was unclear to Marcus if they where suppose to protect the sides of the Evas head or just there to help make it more intimidating. Sticking out of its back was a long cable connected to a nearby charge station (it came from an underground compartment) that provided the power necessary to keep it moving. The helmet didn't seem that special to Marcus but what got his attention about the Evas' head was the fact it had only one eye.

"So that's an Evangelion?"

"Yes, this one is the prototype, the first working Evangelion. Although it's been remodeled some since its creation." Risuko said.

"Some? Come' on Risuko you and I both know that one had to get almost completely refitted after the last Angel attack." Misato piped in.

Risukos' only response was clearing her throat and getting back to watching the monitor. Not long after Unit-00's appearance, its opponent made its own. The behemoth dropped down several miles away from Unit-00 and made a crater on the top of the Cliffside it landed on. When the dust cloud cleared Marcus could finally get a good look at this monstrosity. Its shape was humanoid almost like the Evas' however that's where the similarities ended. It didn't seem to have a head to speak of, but it seem to still have something that resembled a bird-like white-bone colored mask-like-face just below where the neck would normally be. Its eyes were colored with yellow irises with the white part of the eye completely red, the body itself was green with white bones that seem to either stick out of its body or acted as extra armor (it was hard to tell) in the center of its chest there was a red orb of some kind, overall its body seem kinda scrawny to Marcus. '_But looks can be deceiving_.' He mentally told himself, but said out loud…

"And what the hell is that thing?"

"That is the first Angel that attacked Tokyo-3 some months ago." Risuko answered

"…..So that's suppose to be an Angel?

"Exactly."

"….Hmm, not what I expected one to look like."

For a while the two giants didn't move an inch, they just seemed to stare at each other just watching for the opposite to make a move. It wasn't long before one of them made the first move.

The Angel leapt off the cliff, almost pouncing on top of the Eva. But Rei was quick to react; she leapt to the side where a compartment rose up from the ground revealing rifles and extra ammunition, Unit-00 picked up a rifle and fired away on the Angel. But none of the bullets connected as they were hitting some kind of barrier (with hexagon patterns) right in front of the behemoth.

"What the…"

"What you see there is what we call-"

"SEMPAI, should we really tell him about any of this!"

"MAYA! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT CALLING ME THAT!"

"Sorry Dr. Akagi."

On the screen Unit-00 was taking cover again as the Angel began shooting a long energy beam of some kind from its hand.

"Its alright, she's just concerned. I don't really blame her, after all no one really wants to give important info away to some stranger." Marcus said as the brunet he mentioned was looking at him with a questionable look, trying to tell if he was really being nice or was he actually a spy for some other organization.

Meanwhile Rei had somehow lost her cover when the energy beam had completely pierced thru it and nearly took her head off. She ended up using a 'shoot & run' tactic to keep the Angel from destroying her extra weapon compartments.

"Listen Miss, Maya was it?"

"Just Ibiki." The computer technician answered back with a hint of dislike in her voice.

"Ok then…Ms Ibiki, you don't have to worry about 'Nerv secrets being released by me' anytime soon, Promise." Marcus Assured her while still watching the battle on the monitor rage on, he only took his eyes off the screen when he was addressing one of the Nerv members for a sec before looking back at the fight.

At some point in the fight, Rei switched tactics again when her umbilical cable was cut leaving her with only the reserve power. The timer had already started counting down from five minutes, leaving her no choice but to fight the Angel up close with her progressive knife while her rifle was out of ammo. Luckily the barrier from before didn't seem to stop her from getting close; unfortunately for her the Angel was no push over when it came to close range combat, it demonstrated this by blocking the punches and grabbing attempts from her free hand while dodging the knife in Unit-00's other one.

When it went on the offensive things got pretty bad for Rei, The Angel had (strangely enough) increased its strength by pumping up the muscles in the arm it used to punch Unit-00 aiming for its chest, however thanks to Rei's quick reaction the punch ended up breaking the Evas' left shoulder instead. Even thou it was a simulation Rei still felt the feedback from the injured body part, but the pain wasn't as bad as in an actual fight against an Angel, She then decided to get some distance from the Angel until she came up with another way to kill it.

"Uh Dr. Akagi I think that Angel is slightly stronger then the one I fought, I don't really remember it blocking punches like that."

"Its part of a pilots' job to be on top of changes to their battle situation so I added a bit of extra combat capabilities to the Angels' programming."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Maya said to the green haired man with a skeptical look still on her face.

"Well you weren't there when I talked to your boss so I'll have to say it; I'm allowed to be here at Nerv on the condition I don't do anything the Commander doesn't like." Marcus Answered.

'_That doesn't really make me feel any better.'_ Maya Thought to herself.

Rei was almost out of options at this point; the moment she tried to get another umbilical cable (since her power was running low) the Angel grabbed her and pinned her down on the ground. The energy beams it shot before was changed to an energy piston, and was being used to try to pierce thru the head of Unit-00 at the moment. It was looking pretty bad, if she didn't find some way to turn the tables soon the Angel would end up winning. The Angels attack kept hammering away at the helmet already cracks were beginning to show, she considered her only 2 options at this point: One, she could self-destruct the Eva, at such a close range the Angel should be killed in the process, or two she could try to reach her prog-knife which was at the moment a few feet (by Eva's standards) away from her outstretched hand and try to stab it in its exposed core on its chest. According to the timer she had only 10 seconds to do something.

As the Angel was having its fun trying to pierce the Eva Units' head, the onlookers continued to watch waiting to see what Rei would do. Their answer came in the form of a flash of light followed by a massive explosion that destroyed the two combatants, as well as many of the nearby buildings and windows that were some miles away. Shinji looked on in surprise while Marcus looked a little disappointed at the outcome, the rest of the staff were a bit taken back by the battles results.

"Hmm, didn't expect her to do that." Marcus finally said.

"Rei's been known to….go the extra mile no one else would." Misato said.

"….I don't like it, once I start training her she'll definitely know how to get out of those situations without the need to pull a kamikaze move."

"So then you're saying could have done better?"

"This isn't about me, but the way I see it she could have reached for that knife of hers stabbed the thing in the eye, then the moment it's distracted from the intense pain take the finishing blow."

"…That's…really thought out."

"What can I say; I try to see the possibilities in combat."

"And what if the knife was just out of reach?" Risuko asked out of curiosity.

"Poke the eyes, grab the knife, and finish the job." Marcus answered without hesitation.

As Marcus was going over the different actions with the Nerv staff, Shinji decided to go see how Rei was doing. Rei at the moment had just finished changing out of her plug-suit, and back into her school uniform, when Shinji walked in still slightly disturbed by the simulation.

"Uh Rei." Shinji started getting Rei's attention.

"Well are you all right, I mean after that fight an all." He said somewhat stumbling with his words. She answered in the same somewhat monotone like voice she always does.

"I am fine pilot Ikari, I was just…distracted."

"Distracted, by what?"

"…"

"W-well if you can't tell me I guess that's all right."

"It was a dream."

"What?"

"It was a dream I had last night. I couldn't concentrate because of it."

"….Rei? What was your dream about?" Shinji asked, his voice almost becoming quiet as it started to feel a bit like déjà-vu.

"….It was dark, I felt like I was sinking until my feet touched a stained glass platform where someone's voice I did not recognize was talking to me. Then three pedestals rose up from the ground where-"

"Three strange weapons appeared on top of each pedestal." A voice spoke. When Shinji & Rei turned to the locker rooms' only entry way, they saw Marcus was standing there with a look of understanding. The two pilots stood there looking at him for a while before Marcus broke the tension.

"Sorry for eaves-dropping like that, but if anything this confirms what I thought before."

"Um, what do you mean uh Marcus sir?" Shinji said now realizing something. This green haired man never gave his last name. "Mr. Marcus sir-"

"Just Marcus is fine for now Shinji ." He said with a small smile.

"Oh ok, well it just occurred to me, you never told me your last name."

"….."

"I-If you can't give me your last name I uh understand if it's a secret or something."

"It's not a secret or anything special Shinji, I just….don't have one to give is all." He said with an almost sad smile. Shinji felt he might have stepped over a line he shouldn't have, things probably would have gone somewhat awkward if Rei hadn't spoke up.

"What did you mean by 'confirming you thoughts'?"

"Oh right, thank you Rei. Well it just means you'll have to come with me and the others so I can talk to you about these odd dreams that you two are having."

"I see." Without a word Rei walked over to the locker room and waited by the door.

"Well then, let go get Dr. Akagi & Misato, and go find somewhere to talk." Marcus said leading the two pilots to their destination. Sometime later the group found a secluded location off base; it was an abandoned building in the outskirts of Tokyo-3.

"Ok, now before we get started I'd just like to know one thing; what exactly was that barrier the Angel used earlier?"

"Oh that? That was an AT field, to sum it up it's basically a strong defensive barrier against anything that might hurt it or the Evas' for that matter." Risuko answered.

"I see, that explains a lot. Thank you Dr. Akagi." Marcus said while thinking '_I almost thought that thing used a barrier spell of some sort, but then again it didn't look like magic to me._'

"My pleasure."

"So what exactly did you have to tell us?" Misato spoke up getting impatient.

"Oh right sorry." Marcus replied with a sheepish grin while scratching the back of his head.

"Ok here it is; I came here because I sensed potential keyblade wielders here." Shinji was speechless for the moment; something about that word 'keyblade' seemed to give him strange feelings. Almost like something in him was 'anxious' to come out just from hearing that word.

"O-k, so what IS a keyblade exactly?" Risuko asked. Without saying a word Marcus raised and extended his right arm away from his body, the others didn't know what to think until a flash of light appeared in his hand then vanished just as fast as it appeared. What the group saw in his hand was such an odd sight, they almost couldn't think of anything to say.

There in his hand was a sword of some kind, but the very shape was off from just calling it an ordinary sword; the handle guard was shaped in the form of a heart (much like the ones you'd see during Valentines Day) with the left side colored white while the right side was black, the body (or blade) of it was a grey color with a swirling vortex design extending from what they could see of the handle to the tip of it, the tip of the blade was in the shape of a axe almost resembling an executioners axe and yet still maintained a key-look, just below the handle guard there appeared to be a chain with a symbol of two blades(one of pure darkness and one of pure light) crossing each other at the end of it. When no one said anything Marcus spoke.

"This…is a keyblade." The others were speechless until just one person spoke up.

"Whoa, that's… I don't even…so that's a keyblade?" Misato managed to get out.

"Yes and when the time comes, I'm going to teach you two how to wield one as well." Marcus stated pointing to both Shinji & Rei.

Shinji could hardly think of how he would even wield such a thing, how was this even related to his dream from last night. "I-I'm not trying to be rude, but what does this have to do with our dream?"

"Shinji It has everything to do with your 'dream'; you see that dream was two things in one, a means to form your keyblade fighting style, and a warning."

"A warning? A warning for what?" Misato asked.

"A warning of eminent danger from beings known as Heartless."


	5. Time for some explainations

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or Kingdom Hearts or any other Anime mentioned in this story they belong to their rightful owners.

Mistos' head was spinning, there was so much that she now knew thanks to the new guy in Tokyo-3. Currently she was back at her apartment already set up for sleep, but there was just so much to take in. It was nearly a week ago when the green-haired man known as Marcus appeared and told her as well as the others about the Keyblades and their Wielders'. She was going over it in her head.

**Several Days ago**

"Heartless?"

"Yes Risuko, Heartless; their creatures of darkness that devour people's hearts." Marcus stated while putting his keyblade on his back where it somehow stayed put, almost like it was being held by some unseen force.

Misato was still a bit confused on what a heartless was, but just from what Marcus said she got a very disturbing image in her head of a large black beast ripping into someone's chest, and eating the still bloody heart in one gulp. Needless to say she got goose bumps and nausea all at once from the very thought.

"Are you Ok Misato?"

"*Urk* Uh yeah Shinji, just a bad image is all."

"Sorry Misato, I should have been clearer. It's not your real heart they devour, its…well its…I guess you could say it's something like you're…"

"You're what?"

"It's kinda hard to describe, but I guess if you had to clarify it it would be like your souls' heart."

"The souls' heart? I'm sorry but I don't think I'm quite getting it."

"Yeah I'm really not that good at these kind of explanations." Marcus laughed nervously.

"…Well can you at least try or maybe **GET **someone else who can help explain?" Misato asked trying to be patient.

"Ok well..."

"_Sir Marcus, maybe I can help._"

"Are you sure?"

"Sure about what?"

"_Yes Sir Marcus, It'll be alright._"

"What are you sure of?"

"Well then, is the holo-link working yet? Cause I don't want to try talking on your behave, last time I did that I got odd stares and almost ended up in the nuthouse." By now everyone in the room was already giving him the odd stares he mentioned. (Except Rei, she just plain stared) When Marcus noticed their stares, he started groaning, knowing exactly what they were thinking. He sighed before saying-

"Ok, let me explain."

"Uh Marcus sir, are you ok?"

"I'm fine Shinji, thank you. I'm just talking to my friend whose not here right now." He explained, saying the last part slowly.

"And where is this friend of yours right now?" Misato asked.

"Talking to me from a location I can't tell you about right now."

"Are you the only one who can hear this 'friend' of yours?"

"Yes." Marcus said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Is your "friend" here with us now? I'd like to try to talk to this "friend" of yours."

"Misato, I just said my friend was in a DIFFERENT LOCATION!" Marcus nearly screamed out in anger.

"O-K then, I think we should maybe take a nice break while you go take yours over in a nice quiet room. At the nuthouse." Misato said before bursting into a laughing fit. Risuko just tried to hide the fact she was about to do the same as her violet haired friend by trying to hold a straight face, but in the end failed to maintain her professionalism.

"Hahaha, sorry but I couldn't resist." Misato laughed out.

For a while Marcus just stood there with a somewhat dumbstruck look on his face. Until he just sighed in defeat and mumbled out. "I really should 'a seen that coming."

"Don't feel too bad, it just means she's' getting to like you." Risuko said with a hint of laughter still in her voice.

"Well I guess it was pretty funny, anyway I do know someone who can help explain." With that Marcus reached into his coat looking around for something, the others were a little nervous about what he was looking for. Thinking he might really have a few screws loose.

"Where the hell is tha-AHA, found it!" Upon finding the elusive object he held it up above his head in a dramatic fashion, the others could 'a sworn they heard what sounded like a victory fanfare. The object itself looked almost like a bronze disk of some sort. The closest thing it could actually resemble was maybe an old fashion pocket watch at most, only slightly bigger.

When Marcus lowered the device to waist level he pushed a button on the side of it, and the center of it opened up to reveal a projector-like lens rise up a little. The lens begins to emit light from it, from the light an image of a girl with long hair appeared.

"Ah good the image part is working, hey Nini can you hear me?"

"Yes Sir Marcus I can hear you on my end, can you hear me as well?"

"That's a big 10-4 there, looks like the links' working Nini. I don't know how you do it, but nice work."

"Thank you." The girl said while bowing slightly.

"Wow what is that thing, and how are you talking with that girl?" The girl in questions' image turned around in the direction of the boy speaking and began to introduce herself to the group.

"Hello there, my name is Nini. I assist Sir Marcus by gathering data and providing information on any situation my expertise are needed for. May I ask who you four are?" She said with a courteous smile. The first one to answer was the one who spoke earlier.

"Uh Hello my name is Shinji Ikari, and I guess I'm a student and pilot of Eva Unit-01."

"I'm Misato Katsuragi; I'm the Operations Director at Nerv, as well as little Shin-chan's guardian." Shinjis' only response was an embarrassed groan and blushing. Nini giggled at their little antics.

"I'm Risuko Akagi, the Chief scientist of Nerv."

"…."

"Is there something wrong?" Nini asked politely to Rei, but she wouldn't answer.

"Sorry she hardly speaks to anyone, this is-"

"Wait Miss Katsuragi, if you don't mind I'd prefer to get a persons name from their own mouth if possible."Nini turned her attention back to the blue haired pilot. "Young miss, if you can not give me your name I understand, it is your choice after all."

"…My name is Rei Ayaname; I am the pilot of unit-00." *thud* everyone's attention went quickly to the source of the sudden noise. It was coming from the door they used not too long ago; someone had tumbled out from behind it. It didn't take long to identify their intruder.

"Maya! What're you doing spying on us?"

"I'm sorry sempai, but I was just worried he'd try something." Maya answered quickly blushing some now that she was found out.

"So then you called in some highly trained guards or snipers to help out?" Marcus asked.

"Well no."

"Did you get the security division to come with you? Misato asked this time.

"Uh…no."

"Maya did you even bring a gun with you?" Risuko asked while thinking to herself '_please tell me she at least brought that_'.

"…."

*Sigh* "Maya nothing personal, but this was the worst rescue/stakeout attempt I've ever seen." Misato plainly said while Risuko looked slightly annoyed and Shinji looked a bit surprised that someone on Nerv's staff would not bother carrying a weapon to defend oneself in such an occasion, Rei for her part just didn't seem to give any facial response of any kind.

"Well I can honestly say I didn't expect you to be following us, so how much of our 'talk' did you hear?" Marcus asked.

"…."

"Well Ms. Ibiki."

"…All of it." Maya said looking like a child caught doing something she shouldn't have. Marcus first took a look at the situation and began to take it all in for a moment before turning to Nini and asked-

"Do you think we should…include her too Nini?"

"I don't see why not, 'the more the merrier' as the saying goes."

"Maybe, but if theirs' too many, then things could get out of hand real quick."

"I guess so, but still…"

"Ok ok, we'll include her too. Anyway lets get back to the subject…after you introduce yourself of course."Marcus started saying before he got the puppy-dog eyes from Nini. Sometime after that everyone gathered around Marcus as Nini began to explain.

"Ok, let's begin. I'm sure you're all aware of how the human heart works, correct?"  
The members of Nerv nodded as Nini began her presentation when a screen appeared behind her image, showing the human body as well as what looked like a smaller (and cuter) version of her stood by the body image.

"The heart naturally pumps blood thru out the body and provides it the oxygen necessary to keep the body going." The 'chibi Nini' moved and pointed accordingly to each spot mentioned by the actual Nini.

"But the heart has another function that most don't know about. It represents the core of the human body, and once this core is taken by the Heartless (as shown here), the body and mind separate while the heart is left to the mercy of the Heartless." In time with Ninis' speech, the screen showed the heart flashing some before a little black creature with antennas appeared on the opposite side of the 'chibi Nini' who began to shake in fear as the creature reached up to the heart and took it. Once the black creature took the heart it vanished, chibi Nini sighed in relief until she began to panic as the body diagram separated from its brain and both vanished in a black cloud of smoke.

"Interesting, but I have a few questions. First off; was that black thing a heartless or just a representation of one? Second, what happens to the mind once this 'process' occurs?" Risuko asked.

"First; Not exactly, but we'll get to that in a bit. Second; I'm sorry Dr. Akagi, but that will be explained later." Nini answered while giving an apologetic bow. Risuko nodded her understanding.

"Now then, from what data I was able to gather; the heart turns into a crystal-like state when it's pulled out of the body in this unique way. As for why, Sir Marcus can explain it better then I can." As Nini nodded to the green haired man the screen with chibi Nini blinked out with the words 'thank you for watching' while the chibi Nini bowed and smiled before hand.

"Thank you Nini."

"You're welcome, Sir Marcus."

"Well there you go, now I would start talking about the Heartless, but there's an issue we have to take care of first."

"And what's that?" Maya asked while thinking '_pleasedon'tbemepleasedon'tbepleasedon'tbeme_'.

"We're missing someone."

"I do not understand, is the commander coming here as well?" Rei asked.

"No, Rei he already knows all about the duties of a keybarer so he won't be showing up anytime soon."

"Then who is it?" This time it was Shinji who asked.

"The third keybarer of course and according to Gendo she'll be coming in a few days or so."

"She?"

"Just a moment Shinji, Marcus when did the commander tell you about that?" Misato demanded.

"Well you remember that part when Gendo yelled out that he'd never let me near Rei?"

"Yeah."

"It was sometime before that, when I was talking to him about the three possible keybarers I was sensing. Once I told him I sensed this power in Rei he went ballistic on me."

"So that's what happened. Well that might make sense but how are you able to sense this 'power' you mentioned." Risuko asked.

"I'll tell you about that another time, but for now I need to rest up, the trip was a long one."

"I understand, but how will we keep in contact then?"

"After I've rested up and taken care of a few things, I'll come by the base again to see how things are going before the third Keybarer arrives."

**Present time**

Since then things were going well, except for the Jetalone incident, but that's another story. Anyway, true to his word he did come back to the base and just as he promised to Gendo Marcus didn't try to interfere with their business…so far. But during that time Misato and the others got to know Marcus a little more, although he was still on the security divisions & Gendos 'shit-list'. Not to mention some of the Nerv staff were still a little on edge around him, thanks to the rumors they heard about how he pissed off the Commander so much so easily.

'_Well, can't win them all I guess._' Misato thought to herself. '_Might as well get some sleep, after all it's gonna be a busy day tomorrow._' She continued to think just as she was drifting off to sleep.

It was sometime later in the day when a helicopter was flying the friendly (for now) skies. The pilot and passengers where enjoying the ride, while the pilot flew them to their destination without fail. In the back Shinji & Toji where just sitting somewhat quietly while Kensuke (with his trusty camera in hand) was geeking out over their transport. They tried to ignore him as best as they could.

"How are you boys fairing back there?" The pilot asked

"Just fine thank you." Toji answered.

"So Marcus sir, when did you learn to fly a copter?"

"You'd be surprised Shinji on what you could learn under fire."

"Really?" Shinji asked already getting nervous along with Toji. Kensuke was too busy recording whatever he could to hear that comment.

"Don't worry so much, I took lessons afterwards."

"I'm amazed you can fly this thing so well. I almost thought you were bluffing back there when you said you'd be our pilot." Misato piped in.

"Well to tell the truth, I'm only able to get us from point A to B as long as I don't get into a dog fight. For some reason I can't fight in the air like this."

"Well then let's hope we don't get into a fight any time soon. So how are you boys liking the trip so far, I figured you might like a change in scenery from the mountains. So I thought it be kinda nice to have you tag along on this little date." Just from the very word "date" leaving Misato mouth, Toji was even more excited about the trip.

"R-Really this is a date w-with you miss Misato, and to think I bought this cap just for this trip. I'll never take it off." Toji said.

"Sounds like you got some admirers there Misato." Marcus stated, Misato only giggled in response.

"So where are we going?" Shinji asked with a bored tone.

"Oh just going for a cruse on that cute little boat down there." Misato answered while pointing to a fleet of battle ships.

"That's your 'cute little boat'?"

"OH MY GOD, IT'S AN ENTIRE FLEET OF 5 AIR CRAFT CARRIERS & 4 BATTLE SHIPS, SO AMAZING! And look it's the pride of the U.N combined fleet 'the super carrier: Over the rainbow'. "

"I'm amazed you were able to identify them so fast." Marcus said to Kensuke.

"Well if its military grade equipment, I know all about it."

"But obviously not all the info on the Evas right?"

"Oh how I wish I did."

It didn't take long for Marcus to land the chopper with little difficulty. Upon disembarking Kensuke pointed his camera everywhere trying to get everything he could. Toji's cap unfortunately flew off his head while he proceeded to chase it. Shinji just stretched the kinks out of his back, while Misato was somewhat embarrassed of her guests' antics. Marcus just followed without a word.

As Toji chased his cap, the item itself found a leg to hold it onto for the moment. Toji was almost grateful for it until the foot of the same leg stomped on it.

"Well hello Misato, how have you been?" Said the owner of the cap stomping foot.

"Just fine, goodness you've grown some." Misato answered.

"Uh-huh, and I'm not just taller my figures' filled out as well."

Marcus just walked up to the group when Misato started introductions.

"Let me introduce you, this is the designated pilot of unit-02. The second child: Asuka Langley Soryu." Marcus took note of Asukas' appearance. She had fiery red hair, and blue eyes. Marcus could see a fierce fire burning behind them. He could already tell she was going to be a difficult one, but she'd definitely be a great asset.

"Ah so this is-" before he could finish his sentence, a strong gust blew Asukas dress up revealing she was a true red head to the group. Marcus could only think of one thing at this moment. '_Uh-oh'_

*SLAP* *SLAP* *POW* *SLAP*

"Ah what was that for!" Toji demanded. Every male in the group got slapped hard by Asuka, except for Kensuke who got a broken camera lens and a black eye.

"That's the viewing fee, quite a bargain nicht?"An angry Asuka stated.

"Its over priced, but that's ok. HERE'S YOUR CHANGE!" Toji promptly pulled his pants & boxers down giving Asuka the shock of her life. Toji ended up getting cussed out in German and another slap to the face.

'_Was that really necessary Toji?'_ Marcus thought to himself before hiding his amused smile.

"So, which one is the famous 'third child'?" Asuka asked before turning to Toji thinking out loud "Oh nein."

"Don't worry Asuka, this is him." Misato said gesturing towards Shinji.

Asuka proceeded to examine the third child.

"Hmm, not much to look at." She finally stated. Shinji was a bit upset at her statement.

Sometime later the group went up to the bridge to talk to the captain about the cargo transaction. Marcus excused himself for the moment to talk to Nini.

"_Well Sir Marcus how did it go?_"

"Eeh, not so good for a first impression." Marcus said rubbing his sore cheek.

"_Oh that's too bad, but I know if she gets to know you-_"

"She'll be less pissed at me. "He replied with a small laugh.

"You know she really is like…"

"_Sir Marcus?_"

"It's nothing, I gotta go Nini. Keep me updated on any surprise attacks please."

"_I'm not one to question you Sir Marcus, but aren't you being a little paranoid?_"

"In this line of work, you can never be too careful. Keep in touch." He finished before hanging up. When he walked into the bridge, he just barley caught Shinji saying something about someone being just like Risuko. He decided not to ask.

"Well you're as confident as always." An unknown voice said until its owner was identified a second later.

"Kaji!" Asuka excitedly squealed out. Marcus took a good look at the mentioned man, the guy had brown eyes & hair with a ponytail, and he also had a 5 o'clock shadow. Overall to Marcus he seemed to be the 'heartbreaker' type to him.

While the captain was scolding the man now known as Kaji, Marcus noticed Misatos shocked face change to an 'ah man not him' look.

"Uh Misato, are you alright?" Marcus asked.

"Uh yeah, but I think this trip suddenly went to hell." Misato answered while groaning in annoyance.

Sometime later (again) the group got into an elevator, unfortunately the elevator was too small to fit all of them so they all ended up cramped into it. Needless to say it was a very uncomfortable experience.

"What are you doing here!" Misato demanded.

"Accompanying her, I'm on a business trip of sorts." Kaji answered.

"Talk about careless, I should' a seen this coming."

"HEY WATCH WHERE YOU'RE TOUCHING!" Misato & Auska screamed.

"I CAN'T HELP IT!" Kaji & Toji shouted back.

Soon the group was in the cafeteria, Toji & Kensuke were sitting next to Misato who was sitting across from Kaji. Auska was sitting in the middle of Kaji & Shinji, while Marcus had taken one of the empty chairs' and sat on one end of the table. (The end with Shinji & Kensuke)

"So do you have a… boyfriend?" Kaji asked while trying to play footsies with Misato under the table. Misato for her part didn't bother to make eye contact with him, and continued to glare at a nearby wall.

"I don't think that's any of your business, is it." She answered with a slight hint of anger.

"Well maybe someone else can answer that for me, excuse me you?" Kaji began before he gestured to Marcus.

"It's Marcus."

"Ah of course, and you can call me Kaji."

"Ok, sure."

"If you don't mind me asking Marcus, are you and Misato…an item?" The response got some surprised looks from Misatos' fan club AKA Toji & kensuke as the two boys looked in his direction for an answer.

"We just met a couple of days ago, so no we're just friends."

"For now it seems. But I can understand if it's a secret love." Kaji teased, embarrassing Misato while making Marcus blush slightly at the thought.

"So I understand you living with Katsuragi." Kaji said now addressing Shinji.

"Uh, yeah."

"Tell me something is she still so...wild in bed."

"WHAAAAAAAT!" Needless to say the shock from earlier didn't compare to this one as everyone at the table (except for Kaji & Shinji) were caught completely off guard with that statement alone. But none had a redder face then poor Misato.

"Wha-WHAT ARE YOU EMPLYING?" She shouted out.

"No she really hasn't changed much, has she Shinji?"

"I guess, but how did you know what my name was?" Shinji asked.

"Well I ought to know you; you're pretty famous in the defense division-"

As Kaji got to answering Marcus had got over his shock, and began to let his mind wander some. Thinking about some past events, of how he had so much fun talking with his teammates when they weren't in battle. He smiled warmly thinking about those days, but his train of thought was interrupted when Kaji excused himself from the table.

"It's a bad dream; i-it's a nightmare." Misato mumbled to herself.

End of chapter

(I'd like to thank you all for being patient with me so far. and thanks to a couple of readers I've got even more ideas, so I'd like to say thank you to CyberXenoNovian for the great ideas that will come up in later chapters, and DarkDremora4 for bringing the Evas dilema to my attention since I have no clue what to do with them once the angels are taken care of. I'm still thinking about that. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't worry if the chapters takes long or not. I will update whenever I can.)


	6. Battles on the high seas

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, or Kingdom hearts or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners.

"So what did you think of the 'first child'?"

"Oh him, he's borrring."

"Yes but his sync ratio was well over 40 percent in combat without prior training."

"Mien Gott!" Asuka blurted out in surprise.

Marcus let his mind wander some as the escalator guided the group of 5 to their destination, the thought of what to do now that his students were finally assembled scared him some. It wasn't the fact that he would have to actually go to teach them the ropes (although he was partly worried about that.), but it was more of the fact that he would have to try to talk Gendo into letting him take the three pilots off to other worlds for training. He might not have much trouble with taking Shinji & Asuka with him, but the same could not be said for Rei. For some reason Gendo was very protective of Rei for some reason, but for the life of him he couldn't figure it out. Maybe he saw Rei as the daughter he never had, but if that was the case wouldn't that mean-

"He hasn't changed at all THAT SHOVANISTIC PIG!" As Marcus was busy thinking, the others were apparently carrying on in their own conversation.

'_Huh, wonder who she's…never mind Marcus just try to get back on subject. Now then-_"

"Hey 'third child'!"

"Damn it lost my train of thought." Marcus mumbled to himself. The very person who interrupted his train of thought was standing at the top end of the escalator, and she was just glaring at Shinji not even acknowledging the others.

"You're coming with me." Asuka stated. Shinji looked in Misatos' direction.

"Uh Misato?"

"Go ahead Shinji; we'll meet up with you later." Misato answered. When Shinji looked to Marcus, he gave him a nod.

"You might as well, I doubt she's going to take no for an answer."

"Good, then no more stalling with this group of perverted men." Asuka stated before dragging Shinji away with her, leaving two upset boys and one guy in stunned shock.

"…Ow, my pride."

Misato giggled to herself. "That's Auska for ya; she always knows where to hit someone hard."

"Sure looks it, all kidding aside though where do you think she's taking Shinji?"

"Knowing her, it's probably to go show off her superiority."

"Sounds to me she's got quite the ego on her."

"Afraid so."

"That's gonna lead to trouble, an ego like that is just going to get in the way."

"I guess you would know?"

"I might of had an ego before, but nothing like that. Anyway I have to go make a call to Nini, I'll catch up with you later Misato." Marcus said excusing himself from the group. As he walked away Toji (who was quietly watching the current events unfold) decided to ask Misato something.

"Uh hey Miss Misato?"

"Hmm, yes?" Misato asked turning to Toji.

"Where did you find that guy?" He said gesturing towards Marcus. Misato looked in the man in questions' direction.

"The funny thing about that Toji is he found us."

Marcus stepped out onto the ships flight deck, thinking of how to get Gendo to agree to such a trip. It wasn't gonna happen unless he had a proper plan. Since he couldn't put one together by himself, he might as well talk strategy with Nini. He activated his com-link located in his ear.

"Nini, I need to talk to you, do you have a minute?"

"_Of course Sir Marcus, what do you need?_"

"I need your help; I've been trying to come up with some sorta means to get Gendo to let me take Rei with us to other worlds for training."

"_I see but why ask me; you know him better then I do?_"

"I know, but I figured two heads are better then one."

Nini giggled "_Ok I'll try to help, but you're going to have to tell me a bit more about Mr. Ikari._"

"…Ok."

Underneath the ocean a giant monstrosity was swimming along, scaring what was left of the sea life. It had only one thing in mind at the moment; destroy the humans that stole 'him'! It was one thing to disturb 'him' from his slumber long ago, but this was going too far. For the moment 'it' was coming up to the humans that had 'him' captive, but something felt different. There was…some new beings following 'it', they seemed to do nothing to antagonize 'it' at the moment. Whatever they were it didn't matter, as long as these things didn't try to interfere with 'its' current objective then they weren't a threat. (Not that they stood a chance to begin with)

"_This may be more difficult then I thought._"

Marcus sighed at the comment. "I thought as much. Well, I don't suppose you have any ideas do you?"

"_Well…one does come to mind._"

"So what is it?"

"_Maybe we could-_"

*Brrrr* *Brrrr* *Brrrr*

Before Nini could finish what she was saying, the warning sirens were going off onboard the Gummi Ship.

"Nini! What's going on, are you under attack?"

"_No Sir Marcus, the motion sensors I set up just detected something in your vicinity! Something big…really big!_"

"Any clue as to what it is?"

"_Non I'm afraid it doesn't show up on any of my databanks, whatever it is it's headed your way and fast!_"

"Thanks anyway. You know the procedure from here Nini."

"_Right, I'm on it Sir Marcus._"

As Marcus hung up, he ran straight to the captain to try to warn him of the incoming enemy. Meanwhile Misato was leading the little tour group (or what was left of it anyway) to another part of the ship when Marcus ran past them.

"Whoa, where's he going in such a hurry?" Toji wondered out loud.

"Don't know, but it looks like he's headed toward the bridge." Kensuke noted.

Misato didn't say anything, but from the glance she got of the Key bearer' face as he ran off, it didn't look good. "Come on boys, let go see what's wrong." She finally said while mumbling to herself 'I have a bad feeling about this.'

When they made it to the bridge, they found Marcus and the captain arguing about something. From the combination of urgency & anger on Marcus's face, the captain wasn't going to listen.

"Captain you have to listen to me!"

"And why should I do that, what you're telling me is completely absurd. How can you know something our own radars haven't even picked up on?"

"I just do, now please warn your men before it's too late!"

"You just know? I believe there's something you're not telling me."

"It's a classified source, now warn your men!"

"I DON'T TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU! Besides, the way I see it you're in cahoots with whatever this thing is, IF what you say is even true to begin with!"

"You stubborn son of a-"

*BOOOM*

"CAPTAIN WE'RE UNDER ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN ENEMY!"

"WHAT!"

As the captain began to bark orders, Misato walked up to Marcus and pulled him off to the side.

"What was that about back there?"

"Sorry I didn't tell you, but there wasn't any time. Anyway Nini was monitoring for any incoming threats, when she told me I knew I had to warn the captain. But the stubborn ass wouldn't listen."

"Yeah, I could 'a warned you about that. So what's the situation?" Misato said now getting serious.

"According to what Nini said, this thing is pretty damn big, and she has nothing on it data wise. Other then that I don't know what we're dealing with here."

"…I don't like the idea of it, but I think we're being attacked by an Angel."

"Are you serious?"

"It's just a guess though."

"Then what do we do?"

"We have to get Asuka's Eva up and running."

"WHAT? What the blazes are you two talking about?" The captain said 'contributing' to the conversation. "Whatever it is can wait, FIRE THE TORPEDOES!" He yelled out.

"It's pointless." Misato mumbled

"Never mind him, if anything he'll keep it busy until we can get-"

Suddenly the intercom went off with a panicking sailor on the other line. "CAPTAIN, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

"I already know that, we're firing every torpedo we have at it!"

"With all do respect, that's not what I'm talking about Sir. This is something completely different; the men are getting attacked by some…creatures!" Immediately hearing this Marcus started listening more closely.

"You're not making any sense, now calm down and explain."

"S-sorry sir, but the creatures I mentioned they…their strange looking things some of them are completely black with antennas and yellow eyes while some of the others look almost the same but bigger, and…Oh no s-stay back…no, no, NOOOOO-*BZZT*" The room was silent for the moment before the silence was broken by a surprised scream.

"WHA-WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS!"Kensuke screamed out pointing at two dark beings rising up from the metallic floor. One was as small as a ten to eight year old with somewhat crooked antennas and a hunched over posture. It seemed to twitch quite a bit while its partner was far less twitchy; the other one bared some resemblance to its other, however this one was overall bigger, slightly taller and more muscle toned.

"Trouble." Was all Marcus said before he sprung into action. In an instant his keyblade was in his hand ready for battle as the Heartless seem to stare at the people in the room. It was almost like they were scouting for something, suddenly the smaller one leapt at the closest person to it. Kensuke.

He closed his eyes and held up his arms to shield himself from the income onslaught, for a while it didn't seem to come. Confused he opened his eyes to see the claw of the little monster a few inches from his face, the hand of it slightly twitching. As Kensuke's gaze trailed past its arm he soon discovered what stopped the little thing from harming him.

It turned out to be a type of sword Kensuke had never seen before, the blade seemed to be the only thing keeping Kensuke and the creature separate as it held the thing in the air by its stomach as it lay on top of the sword. The holder of the blade decided to fling the little guy back to its partner, upon impact both of them were slammed into the far wall. After witnessing such a feat Kensuke thanked his savoir.

"Thanks Mr. Marcus."

"You're welcome Kensuke, and just Marcus if fine by the way. Now go stand by the others while I deal with these guys." Marcus told Kensuke, never taking his eyes away from the Heartless. The young boy did as he was told and stood with Misato and Toji who were standing in a corner of the room with the captain & his first mate.

"Time to get to work." Marcus quickly ran at the two downed Heartless while putting his keyblade on his back, leaving both his hands free to grab the two by their heads. He quickly turned around and tossed both Heartless out the window breaking the glass in the process. Misato figured it was over after that and relaxed some.

"Marcus that was-" But before she could finish her congratulation, Marcus jumped out the window after them.

"MARCUS WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" She called out not believing what she just saw. He called back saying "trust me" as he flew towards the falling Heartless head first. The heartless were further ahead of Marcus so it wouldn't be long before they hit the ground before him; he had plenty of time to set himself up, and all it took was a two step plan. Step one required him to flip himself, he did so setting himself to falling feet first instead. Next step was the tricky part.

By now the Heartless had landed one on top of the other completely dazed from the ordeal, but now they away from that keybarer. Unfortunately neither one was facing up as a certain keybarer was falling closer and closer to the Heartless pile. The two never saw it coming as Marcus landed right on top of them, stomping them into black smoke. From the bridge everyone saw the green haired mans' amazing feat from the window, almost all of them were shocked of the stunt Marcus pulled.

"ALL RIGHT MARCUS, WAY 'A GO!"

Almost all, Misato was so amazed of the whole thing she couldn't help herself. Marcus for his part started bowing to the applause, thinking to himself-

'_I've still got it._'

"BEHIND YOU!"

Marcus quickly turned in the mentioned direction and found lots of the same Heartless he just took care of just appearing, all ready to attack and rip anyone who stood in their way to pieces.

"Well…I can honestly say I didn't expect so many of you at once." Marcus stated. He gave his keyblade a quick spin around before getting into his keyblade fighting stance. "Well then, let's get started!" He said before charging into the hoard of Heartless and began slashing them into nothing but smoke. Left and right he'd swing, each time he did another set of Heartless would dissolve. When he got deeper into the hoard of Heartless things got tricky as the heartless started jumping at him from different directions. That proved to not help make the odds better for the Heartless, as Marcus countered their strikes even if they were attacking from behind. It didn't take long before the closes ones circling him all jumped him at once, at this action Marcus remained calm and held his keyblade out.

"REFLECT!" At his command a barrier surrounded him, stopping the Heartless attack however that wasn't the end of it as the barrier seemed to break almost like it exploded from the inside, causing his attackers to be propelled backwards and into their fellow Heartless.

"Whoa did you see that? That was unbelievable." Kensuke said getting the whole fight on his camera.

"Yeah, THAT'S THE WAY MARCUS, YOU SHOW THOSE THINGS WHO'S BOSS!" Misato cheered.

"…"

"Hey Toji, what's the matter?" Kensuke asked when his friend said nothing.

"…Nothing, I just thought I saw something."

"Like what?"

"Well it-"

"Captain, Eva unit 02 is activating!"

"IT'S WHAT?" The captain yelled out clearly displeased.

"ALL RIGHT, ASUKA!" Misato cheered (again) grateful that Asuka was able to get to her Eva. Now maybe they stood a chance against the Angel still attacking the other battleships.

"I did not authorize the activation of that toy, disengage this instant!" The captain ordered the Eva after getting it on the line. Misato quickly grabbed the mic away from him.

"Don't listen to him, Get going Asuka!"

As the two 'captain' argued they did not realize the real reason the Angel was attacking was in a suitcase which was in the care of the only known person that wasn't present on the bridge.

"This isn't how it was suppose to go down." Kaji said speaking into the phone.

"_That's why I provided you with two pilots, as an added precaution._"

"But you didn't mention anything about these…little black monsters. I mean where did they even come from?"

"_That's why I also authorized 'that man' to go as well, I always prepare for every possibility._"

"I assume you mean that Marcus fellow."

"_Correct_."

"I don't see how he could handle those things when I saw someone try to hit one with a pipe, and it ended up going completely thru it without causing any harm to little monster."

"_This is his area of expertise, now back to business bring me what I want._"

"Yeah sure commander, I'll bring it right to you." Kaji hung up the phone after that.

As he reached for the case holding the item in question, he suddenly froze in place. He couldn't move but he wasn't aware of it, if fact he wasn't aware that there was someone else in the room with him now. The stranger was wearing a black cloak with a hood that concealed the mystery persons' face. The stranger was accompanied by two tall Heartless wearing knight-like armor caring broadswords. Upon their breastplates they wore an insignia that resembling a black heart with red outlines along with an x mark that crossed the heart, the two Heartless stood in silence waiting for their master.

The stranger walked up to the suitcase kaji was reaching for, picked it up and proceeded to open the case.

"So is this the thing that 'oversized manta ray' is looking for?" The strangers thought out loud, in a male voice.

"How pathetic, all that fuss over a useless little grub like this." He said looking at the cases' contents.

"It would be so much simpler to destroy this thing, and be done with it."The mystery man said while raising his hand up as it started to spark & crackle with power, but just before he could do anything the one of the armored Heartless banged its gauntlet against its chest and got down on one knee bowing.

"What was that?"He asked, but the heartless seemed to say nothing, out loud it seemed.

"Yes I know it's not part of the mission, I haven't forgotten." He replied to the unheard voice as he put the case back where it was.

"…"

"Either way I wasn't going to interfere, I just wanted a look at this supposed 'first Angel'. For an angel, it looks nothing like its name suggests." He scoffed at the case.

"…"

"Yes, yes of course I know the key bearer you've been sensing is destroying a lot of your fellow Heartless, but don't forget the fight is just a smokescreen so we can observe the power of these what do you call them?"

"…"

"Evangelion? What an odd choice of name. Either way we're done here, now let us go see what an Evangelion can do before my stop spell wears off." In an instant a black swirling vortex-like portal rose up behind the three, which they proceeded to enter.

Not long after that Kaji started moving again never even realizing what transpired around him.

Meanwhile back on the bridge Kensuke was watching how Marcus was now facing what was left of the Heartless. Only fifteen were left and it looked like Marcus could still take on more.

"_Sir Marcus, the engineers are almost done moving the cord into place._"

"Great, I'm almost done here too." He hung up and held his keyblade in a thrusting stance.

"It's over, Sonic Blade." In an instant Marcus was zipping straight thru Heartless after Heartless at break-neck speed, stopping only for an instant after each dash. When his assault was finished not one heartless remained, but before he could even relax the sound of clanging metal filled his ears. It didn't take him long to figure out the sound was coming from behind him.

When he turned around he was able to get a good look at his new opponent. The monster was almost ten feet tall and purple with black colored all over it, with the insignia on its main body Marcus had seen many times fight other Heartless. It seemed to be made out of individual parts of armor with no actual connection to the main body; each part was floating close to each other keeping to a humanoid-like form.

"Well now, I haven't seen a Guard Armor in quite a while." Marcus said. The armored being simply got its fist clinched and ready to swing. Marcus got into his own fighting stance.

"Alright big guy, show me what you've got." The two stood before each other waiting for the other to make the first move. However neither one was able to do anything as a giant red colored foot crushed the Guard Armor into black smoke and knocked Marcus on his rear.

"**See, I told you I could land on top of that thing.**" From the sound of it Asuka was gloating to someone.

"WHAT THE HELL, YOU NEARLY LANDED ON TOP OF ME!" Marcus screamed at the red giant.

"**Oh sorry mister pervert, didn't see you their.**" Asuka said over the Evas' intercom.

"IT'S MARCUS NOT PERVERT DAMNIT!" Marcus called back as Unit 02 reached out and grabbed the umbilical cord and proceeded to attach it to its' back.

"**Ok fine then, just get out of here before the Angel gets here.**" Asuka said now getting her prog-knife out. With a nod Marcus moved it back to the bridge before things got messy.

It was hours later, the ships had already docked and the Unit 02 was being transported to Nerv. Things had finally calmed down some, and for the time being everyone was safe.

"Glad that's over with." Marcus said. He was sitting in the backseat of the jeep, while Misato & Risuko were in the front with Risuko driving.

"I'll say. I really should have anticipated it that was dumb of me."Misato mumbled out.

"You're apologizing?" Risuko piped in.

"Cut it out."

"Come on Misato, your plan to destroy the Angel went off perfectly. I mean who else would 'a thought to use two battleships like that to blow it up from inside its mouth like that?" Marcus stated trying to cheer her up.

"I guess, at least we got some valuable data out of it."

"Something to look forward to when I get back to the base." Risuko said.

"If you need more info just ask, and Nini will send you what she collected."

"Thank you Marcus, I'll take you up on that but for now I like to go over what we have now."

"No problem." Marcus said. He went back to thinking about what just happened back there when Kaji just up and left in the middle of the attack like that. What was so important that he needed to take off so sudden-

"HEY WAIT!"

"Damn it lost it again." Marcus mumbled to himself, getting frustrated from being interrupted...again.

"Is Kaji still around?"An excited Asuka asked.

As Misato told Asuka where the man in question was, Marcus was able to get back on subject. Overall it was very suspicious; obviously it was something important that much was certain, but what could be that important. Unfortunately for now he would have to concentrate on the current task at hand…getting Gendo to agree to let Rei go to other worlds with him and her fellow pilots/future key bearers. Marcus groaned at the thought again.

"What's wrong with you Marcus?" Misato asked. He was about to answer her when an idea struck.

"Well there is something, maybe if you two have some time we can talk."

"About what exactly?" Risuko asked now with her interest peaked.

"About future traveling arrangements."

End of chapter


	7. Preparations and a failed fight

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, Kingdom Hearts or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners.

"You must be joking."

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Why would you suggest such terms?"

"Because it's the only thing I figured you might agree to."

"…I will admit what you're suggesting does sound… appealing."

"So we're in agreement?"

"…Give me some time to consider it. I have a trip to get to; I'll give you my answer upon my return."

"Thank you Gendo."

"I prefer you call me by my title."

"Ok fine,' Commander' Ikari, but you also have to call me by my…ah who am I kidding I'm not part of the military ranks and I couldn't care less if anyone called me by my title."

"Perhaps, even so I don't believe you have earned enough of my respect for me to call you 'Master Marcus'."

"Doesn't really matter to me." Marcus said, shrugging his shoulders at the remark.

It was funny to Marcus, when he walked up to Gendo and explained to him what his idea was that he came up with a day ago about Rei traveling with him and her fellow pilots. Already he could tell Gendo was pissed despite the fact Gendo looked calm about it, they decided to take their conversation in the Commanders office where they could talk without being herd behind Gendos' new much thicker door.

"Well then I must be off, Fuyutsuki will be in charge for the mean time." The Commander said getting up from his seat. Marcus took the hint and started walking out the door.

"Have a safe journey." Marcus commented before they went their separate ways in the hallway. Gendo just continued walking without even acknowledging the farewell. Marcus again didn't really care if he didn't respond or not, all that mattered right now was that his idea was going to work…he hoped.

* * *

"Ah man, did you see that? I can't believe I got the whole thing on film!" Kensuke said excitedly, he and Toji were looking over the footage again on Kensukes' TV where they hooked up his camera. They were currently watching the part where Marcus had just finished using that barrier-thing to knock the creatures away from him, Kensuke didn't know what that was but it looked pretty damn cool to him to care at the moment.

"Did you get the part where he jumped out the window?" Toji asked.

"Of Course, why?"

"Just rewind to there, there's something I want to see."

"Ok, ok fine." Kensuke grumbled as he did his task. It didn't take long to get to the desired part of the film. They sat there watching Marcus jump out of the window after he threw the two 'things' when Toji suddenly blurted out-

"THERE! Pause it right there!" Kensuke fumbled around with the remote a bit out of surprise but he managed to pause the video.

"Damn it you took too long and overshot it!"

"Yeah well thanks for the scare, and what the hell are you looking for here anyway?"

"Remember when I said I thought I saw something that day?"

"Yeah, it was right before the red Eva fought that Angel." Kensuke said rewinding the video to the same moment again.

"Yeah well I just wanted to see- THERE PAUSE IT!" Toji started to say when he saw the desired part coming up. This time Kensuke managed to stop it at the right spot; and boy did it pay off.

"There, you see that?"

"I see it Toji, but …what the hell am I looking at?"

"I don't know, but this proves I saw something that day." Toji said looking hard at the image of Marcus still in midair along with some other 'thing' seemingly fading in & out trying to make heads or tails of it. The image itself almost looked to Toji like the other thing came out of Marcus and vanished in a split second to who-knows-where.

"Maybe I can try to focus the image a bit later; in the mean time I've still got to develop those photos tonight otherwise we won't meet our dead-line tomorrow."

"Huh, oh yeah the photos I almost forgot about that. Man if the guys at school knew what we know they'd steer clear of that hot tempered red head." Toji said in a somewhat disgusted tone, just thinking about Asuka gave him an upset feeling in his stomach, but obviously the other guys at school wanted some kind of keepsake of her for one reason or another. So Toji & Kensuke decided to take a few pictures of her (as her unofficial & secret paparazzi) and make a small profit out of it. They would definitely make good cash from it provided Asuka never found out it was them selling photos of her when she wasn't looking.

"Yeah well not much we can do about it. Anyway when I've got time I'll see what I can do about the video image."

"Ok Kensuke, thanks for going thru the trouble. We'll get to the bottom of this in no time."

"No prob, but you know it would be easier if we went straight to the source 'himself'."

"Yeah but…we don't really know how he's gonna react to this; I mean for all we know this is some sorta invisible secret project soldier that we weren't suppose to see. That could get us into big trouble again and who knows if he wouldn't try to kill us just to keep it secret."

"I guess, but he doesn't seem to be the type to do anything like that and besides; if you're that worried about him, why don't we ask Shinji to help us understand him. They seem to be a bit 'buddy, buddy' with each other, after all, maybe he could tell us a thing or two about this. "

"I guess, but still whatever that thing is it's definitely not normal." Toji stated once again staring at the frozen image.

* * *

The next day Marcus began to wander around the Nerv base, it helped him think and sometimes just getting up and walking around, or training would really get the juices flowing. Today was not a day for training just yet, so he opted for walking around and getting to know his way around the base, despite the fact he's been in Tokyo-3 for weeks, he still has not had the chance to get familiar with the place just yet. Every other time he was usually lead around by a staff member that was nice enough or with Misato and/or Risuko. But not today, if anything it was perfect for mentally mapping the place out as well as thinking about what Gendo was planning. As long as Marcus knew him Gendo always seemed to be up to something especially after Yui's death, and what was with the Heartless appearing so suddenly on the ship the other day.

"_It's strange how they just came out of no where like that, I know for a fact I didn't have my keyblade out long enough to attract such a huge amount of them and even if I did they would of gone after me first then the crew members that were too close to the action. Could someone be manipulating them from behind the scenes? And if that's the case then who could be controlling them and why?"_ Marcus pondered to himself. So many questions yet no answers for them, maybe he should start with Gendo first before moving on to the heartless, but he was a keyblade master there's no way he could just overlook their activities for anything. This was giving him a headache.

"Hey Marcus." His thoughts were interrupted when Misato called out to him.

"What's up Misato?" Marcus answered back.

"Nothing much, what about you?"

"Just thinking to myself, but I could use a break."

"Really, you need a break from thinking?" Misato retorted sarcastically.

"I just got a lot on my mind, anyway what brings you here to the uh…wait where the hell am I?" Marcus said scratching the back of his head as he finally noticing he was in one of the many hallways that look the same in the base so naturally it was hard to tell exactly where he wandered into while in deep thought.

"We're actually close by to Risuko's work station, why don't we go check up on her?"

"Ok, sure."

As they walked their way down the hallway they began to make 'small talk'.

"So I heard you talked to the Commander yesterday, did he agree to your idea?"

"He's thinking it over while he's away, but he did say it sounded '…appealing'." Marcus said impersonating Gendo's scowl look and hand gesture he's well known for. Misato couldn't help but giggle at the attempt.

"I think that's a good sign, but what if he doesn't go with it?"

"I'll have to convince him in the usual way we did before I left."

"And that is?"

"We argue for several days straight screaming at each other until one of us gives in."

"…You can't be serious."

"Unfortunately, I am."

"_That's just too stupid for words."_ Misato thought to herself. "So you're confident in that plan?"

"…Um, no not really, he pretty much outlasts me a good portion of the time."

"How good?"

"…90 percent of the time." Marcus mumbled out with his head held low.

"…Well…that sounds like a good plan." Misato said with a sarcastic tone and an annoyed twitching eyebrow.

"…How about we change the subject now."

"…I think that would be best."

"Ok then…what's the deal with you and Kaji?"

Already the annoyed twitching eyebrow had returned to Misatos' face as well as its buddy the angry ticking vein. "Let's not talk about that-"

"Misato? What's-"

Without realizing it Marcus and Misato had in fact walked up to Risukos' work area and to their right side a glass shielding was in place right next to the door, and beyond the glass was Risuko being held in an embrace by Kaji. When Marcus noticed this he made sure to keep some distance from Misato…just in case. Misato had anger written all over her face not at the fact it looked like Kaji was trying to get with Risuko (it was his way of saying 'long time no see' to her), It was the fact that Kaji was still here at the base. Misato soon proceeded to march into the room with Marcus following three steps behind.

"It's been a while Kaji, you've gotten more discreet since last time." Risuko said to Kaji.

"He's never been discreet in his entire life. And what the hell are you still doing here I thought you finished transferring Unit-02!" Misato angrily added to it.

"Its part of my orders I got this morning, I'll be sticking around a little longer. Now we can hang out more, gorgeous, just like we use to." Kaji said addressing the last part to two ladies in the room.

"Don't flatter yourself." Misato growled out before the alarms started going off.

*Brrrr* Brrrr* *Brrrr*

"What the hell is that alarm for?" Marcus asked.

"It's an incoming Angel!" Misato called out before dashing out of the room followed by Risuko.

"Never a dull moment around here is there?" Kaji retorted to Marcus.

"Try working in my line of work." Marcus stated before following after the two women, leaving Kaji stumped before he smiled and followed as well.

* * *

It didn't take long to get the Eva's and the pilots ready for battle, but even if they were prepared as they always are, it was still like going in blindly. Every time they sent in the Eva's the Angels were always different, so it always turned into a learn-on-the-spot mission. As the command room was filled with several people doing their job, Marcus kind of felt out of place just standing around in when he's usually the one going into the fights. Despite this however, he could still provide some kind of support, couldn't he?

Soon the Angel was in sight approaching the shoreline from the sea, the Angels' body resembled an Arrowhead shaped humanoid with the corners as its two arms, and its assumed face looked like a small (by comparison) yin-yang dome. The Eva's were soon released from their drop ships and landed with a mighty thud, both Eva's were armed; Shinji's Eva was carrying a rifle while Asuka's Eva was carrying a javelin. From the Eva's comm-line the sound of Asuka's complaining could be heard.

"Two against one's not exactly a fair fight."

"We don't get a choice, survivability take priority." Misato answered back.

Asuka groaned out of disappointment, her first time battling the Angels in Tokyo-3 and she couldn't do this mission solo.

From Marcus' point of view it looked pretty simple especially with two Eva's' out there on the battle field; go in, kill the Angel, go home, end of story. It looked simple but then again it usually never was.

Asuka started the operation by charging in, leaving Shinji to try to cover her from the shore. Unit-02 started hopping from one submerged building rooftop to the next until she got within range. With all of her Eva's might she leapt up and swung her javelin down hard on the Angel effectively splitting the behemoth in half. Shinji was left somewhat surprised at the feat.

"Well I'll be damned." He mumbled out.

"_Man Shinji can say that again, that was impressive…in a brutal sort 'a way. I guess I was getting worried over nothing._" Marcus thought to himself.

But just as it seemed to be over the two split halves suddenly sprung to life, as the skin shed itself revealing twin Angels that leaped out to stand back to back between the two Eva's. The last thing Marcus heard before the fight was Misato's outburst.

"THA-THAT'S A LOAD OF BULL!"

* * *

Some hours after the battle, most of the members of the operation were all in the conference room going over the battle results with a slide projector. Everyone was quietly sitting during the debriefing…except a certain green haired guy who was trying to keep himself from laughing out loud, instead he silently giggled to himself. As the slide moved over to the Unit-01's picture taken after the fight Marcus lost it and fell to the floor laughing his ass off while Shinji started groaning at the sight of it. The picture of Unit-01 was of the Eva half buried into the sand out at sea close by to the shore, it legs were the only thing sticking out of the water. When the projector moved to the next slide Marcus finally was able to get control of his laughing fit, but just barley enough to pull himself up from the floor to a height sufficient enough to see the picture and fall back down as he went into another laughing fit. Asuka just groaned out of anger at the laughter, this time the picture was of Unit-02 in the same position as Shinji's Eva except it was planted into solid ground.

Overall the operation didn't go so well.

"Marcus can you please stop laughing!" Fuyutsuki tried to say as calmly as possible.

"HAHA Sorry Kozo but HEHEHE I've never seen anything so…so…"

"Pathetic?"

"RIDICULOUS, AND WITH GIANT MECHAS NO LESS AHHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Grrr, this is all your fault third child!" Asuka shouted at Shinji.

"Me? You're the one who didn't want to follow protocol and charged in head first you idiot!" Shinji snapped back.

"Idiot? You have no right to call me that when you look like a drowned rat!" Asuka said pointing to the image of Shinjis' Eva.

"You-you can't say anything like that to me when yours looks no better!" Shinji argued back pointing to her Evas' picture. Before the argument could escalate anymore the presentation continued, since they failed they had no choice but to turn over command to the military forces. The military responded to the Angel threat by dropping N2 charges on the enemy, the resulting blasts caused significant damage to the shore area, and caused the Angel('s) enough damage to stop their movement for the time being.

"Well at least we get a second chance, and you can't ask for anything better then that." Kaji commented. By now Marcus was finally finished laughing.

"Be-Hehe-best chance to regroup, and come up with something." Marcus said composing himself.

"All right you two!" Fuyutsuki said addressing the two young pilots. "What is your job?"

"Piloting the Eva's?" Asuka answered.

"WRONG! Your job it to kill the Angels! We can't afford to have these 'incidences' occur; otherwise we'll look like fools!" Kozo said before he left the room.

"Why are grown-ups so angry and 'stupid' around here?" Asuka asked directing that 'stupid' part at Marcus, who for his part pretended he didn't hear that comment and left the room.

* * *

"Hey, It's me again, you there?"

"_Just a second, HEY I thought I told you to take that equipment to the laboratory three minutes ago. Get it there this instant or I'll use YOU for my next experiments meal!_"

"Sounds like things are going smoothly over there."

"_SHUT THE HELL UP! Now what do you want?_"

"Well I'm just reporting in just like you told me to."

"_Oh that's right, I did say that didn't I? Well now what juicy news do you have for me?_"

"Well compared to the last one, this report has a lot of…flaws this time around."

"_Flaws, what kind of-HEY YOU NEANDERTHAL, WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH THOSE CHEMICALS they can become unstable and BLOW US TO FRIKKEN KINGDOM COME!_"

"…So when did you move, I thought you liked your location?"

"_I didn't move, I just got back from resupplying my lost stock thanks to a…little accident I had with my last concoction._"

"Oh I see, so do you want the info now or after your 'hired help' breaks everything you just got?"

"_Don't get me started; until some proper intellectual beings come around here I'm stuck with these idiototic excuses for Heartless. The only ones doing their job right so far are that Shadow and NeoShadow types which is more then I can say for that Invisible type their suppose to be deadly opponents in battle but can't frikken carry a case of chemicals properly, still I can't help but feel those two are the closes ones to being competent around here. Might have been because that little experiment I-"_

_*Boom*_

"_YOU DUMBASS I TOLD YOU TO BE MORE CARFUL oh wait he's gone for good so what do I care._"

"Doesn't sound like you're a goner yourself, so the lab is still up?"

"_It looks like the oaf just blew down a wall and took himself out in the process, no big loss._"

"Whatever, so I'll just give you my report later then?"

"_No, I want to hear what info you collected on the Evangelion's this time so let's have it._"

* * *

"So what you're telling me is; you're going to teach me how to use a sword so I can kill some monster-things that aren't Angels?"

"…Well that's the general idea Asuka."

"…Do you realize how that even sounds? You can't expect me to believe that a dream I had a few days ago could actually have been some sort of… 'mental warning system' for those whatever those things are."

"Look I know it's a lot to take in but I'm telling you the truth."

"Yeah right, and the Angels are actually trying to be our friends!"

Marcus groaned out of frustration, it may take a while to convince her, but something about it felt…defensive in a way. Currently their conversation was taking place in Misatos apartment where Shinji was also taking residents, but when he got home earlier he didn't expect to have another roommate much less the fiery red head herself Asuka. Marcus had come by to explain everything he told Shinji and the others before. As it turned out Asuka was just being difficult about it.

"Asuka, I may not know too much about this keyblade business, but maybe you should give it a shot. I mean what have you got to lose?" Misato piped in wearing her usual at home attire; a tank top with short shorts. Shinji for his part was quietly sipping his tea.

"Well if it sounds so good to you, why don't you try it?" Asuka snapped back.

"Because Misato doesn't have that power inside her." Marcus answered.

"And how the hell would you know?"

"Because it was part of my job back when there was still an order for key bearers." Marcus answered before pausing in his explanation, reflecting on his past. "I was one of the few who could sense when there was a potential keyblade that was coming into existence. That's part of how I found you two, and before anyone asks I'm not telling the other reason…not just yet anyway."

"…Oh…well I still don't know about this?"

"Think of it this way Asuka, it'll give you a chance to show off your skills outside the Eva. Not to mention this could improve your fighting skills some." Misato said.

"…"

"Before you make your decision, I need to tell you both this." Marcus said addressing Shinji and Asuka.

"One way or another; your keyblades will manifest themselves, but under my wing at least you'll learn how to put up a fight against opponents that are far greater in size & numbers, not to mention the many new things you never thought you would ever be able to do. I won't lie to either of you two, the training will be tough and rigorous, but I guarantee the training will give you a better understanding of battles and self defense."

When Marcus finished neither of the two spoke a word and just took a moment to think it over.

"So what do you say, will you undertake my training and let me help you out as best as I can along the way or go at it yourselves and go as far as you can alone?"

* * *

"_So they agreed to it?_"

"That's right Risuko; it looked like they were reluctant at first though, but they went ahead and said yes."

"_Well I can't really blame them Misato, you remember how reluctant Shinji was to get into Unit-01 the first day he got here?_"

"…Yeah I do."

"_So what does Marcus have in mind for them?_"

"Don't know, after they gave him their answer he just smiled and said he'd be back by the time the day the Angel should be fully healed, but he did leave them with a bit of homework."

"_Oh, and what is it?_"

"Well he told them about an easier way to help get their keyblades to come out. It had something to do with mediation and their 'dream weapons'."

"_*sigh* I'm going to guess that made more sense to those two then it does for me._"

"They got the idea; last I saw Asuka was trying it out herself."

"_Ok, but shouldn't Rei go thru this too?_"

"Marcus said he'd stop by Rei's place to tell her about it, so I don't think we have to worry about that."

* * *

While Misato was talking to Risuko over the phone in the bath tub, the two pilots were at that moment in their meditative stances (a sitting position with their legs crossed), trying to do what Marcus told them to do. Shinji was sitting silently when Asuka suddenly slammed her hands down on the floor with a furious thud.

"…Damn it, I'm not getting anywhere with this!" Asuka growled.

"Maybe you're doing something wrong." Shinji said his response got him a dirty look from the German red head. "Well maybe not, but we just started not that long ago. Isn't it too soon to just give up?"

"Idiot, who says I'm giving up, I just want to know if I'm doing this right!"

"Well Marcus did say to focus on those weapons we picked in our dream so-"

"I'VE ALREADY BEEN- *sigh* never mind I'll just try again." So Asuka went back to her own meditation, when Misato walked into the room after her bath and dressed in her sleeping attire.

"Don't stay up too late you two, remember we need to get you two to sync with each other. We'll start the training in the morning."

"Ok Misato, but what about-"

"Don't worry about that Shinji, we'll try to squeeze in your 'sessions' into the schedule somewhere. In the mean time let's get to sleep."

* * *

Meanwhile onboard Marcus's gummy ship, Marcus started giving orders and world names.

"Sir Marcus, what are we going to do on these worlds?"

"Well on the first world: Traverse town we're gonna do some shopping for potions, Hi-potions, Mega-potions, and if possible Elixirs, as well as other stuff we may need like new gummi parts. On the second one we're going to see an old friend about some special outfits for the kids before we even start going to other worlds yet."

"I see, but isn't this world the area you told me an old master retired to?"

"That's right, after all The Mysterious Tower belongs to Master Yen Sid; last I heard there were three fairies taking refuge in his place that could provide the magical attire the kids will need."

"…Sir Marcus is that all the reason why we're visiting him?"

"No Nini, since the other day after the fight on the battleship I've had a bad feeling that something is going on behind the scenes. I need to talk to him about this; he might have some clue as to what's going on."

"But what if he doesn't?"

"Then it's all up to us."

"I see."

* * *

"And that's my report; overall that last fight was nothing but a total embarrassment."

"_Yes, clearly the ones piloting the Evangelions aren't exactly fit to use such marvelous creations. But then again we have no means for the genuine articles._"

"Oh how nice; you decided not to tell me to steal something for once. Not that it would have been easy mind you, not because of security of course but just because of the shear size of those things. There'd be no way for me to make a portal big enough or leave it open long enough to take all three Units."

"_I know that, that's why for now you just keep observing them and if possible send me samples of their armor if you can._"

"Listen Doc you may have hired me to do this job as well as pay me well, but do NOT consider me your errand boy."

"_Yes, yes scary threat bla, bla, bla. Just do this for me, and next time you swing back to the lab I'll let you take it out on a couple of my earlier experimental Heartless creations as well as some 'test subjects' I was thinking were not worth my time, how does that sound?_"

"…Doctor, I believe you've got yourself a deal." The Hooded man said with a wicked smile plastered on his face, he was looking forward to sharpening his blade on something or someone for once in a long time.

End of chapter


	8. Time to depart

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion Kingdom Hearts, or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners.

The streets of Tokyo-3 were almost as lively as they were before the latest Angel fell to Nervs' own Eva's. People were starting to walk the streets again, shops were busy with the people that came for their necessary needs, and the vehicles transported people (and cargo sometimes) to their destinations. One vehicle in particular (a Nerv grade Jeep) was currently transporting six passengers with one driver, as well as breaking almost every law of the road and possibly a few laws of physics. The other passengers were trying their best to hold on for dear life, as their so called driver was speeding past & thru traffic at top speed.

"Misato don't you think LOOK OUT!" Marcus screamed the last part out as Misato swerved past a car and almost into a truck.

"Geez Marcus I didn't think you scared easily." Misato giggled out while taking her eyes off the road at that moment.

"He's not the only one, can't you drive like a normal person!" Ritsuko said in the back seat. Next to her was Maya, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei all squeezed into the back.

"Where's the fun in that, and besides aren't we in a hurry?" Misato answered while making a sharp turn without slowing down.

"Not that much of a hurry, I'd like to actually live long enough to get there!" Asuka yelled out.

"It'll be a miracle if we make it thru this."

"What was that Marcus?"

"Nothing Misato- Car, car, CAR!" Marcus started panicking as they speed past a stop sign while another driver was just driving onto the road. Misato had made a hard swerve to avoid the vehicle while at the same time putting her in a complete spin-out.

"MISATO, STOP THIS CRAZY THING!" Maya, Ritsuko, and Asuka was screaming out in the back, while Rei was quietly sitting with her seat belt on (although she had put a death grip on the very belt), Shinji for his part was holding onto his seat as best as he could quietly panicking to himself (except the occasional scream of panic every now an then).

"Don't worry so much. I do these kinds of things all the time." Misato said making a half-ass attempt to calm everyone down.

* * *

Thanks to Misatos' 'driving ability' they made it to their destination sooner then Marcus had anticipated.

*Urk* "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Unfortunately their breakfast was a different story.

"Misato, where the hell did you learn to drive like that?"

"Learn? I've been doing that for years now Marcus."

"…What?"

"It's true, ever since I knew her back in our Collage days, that's the way she's' been driving." Ritsuko said with an unhealthy shade of green on her face. (No it's not Vomit.)

"…Great."

"On the plus side she's been getting better at avoiding property damage."

"Oh come on Ritsuko, it was just one time!"

"Try six to ten times."

"Ok, ok enough, let's just get going. There's a lot of things we need to go thru and I'd like to try to take off now before Gendo decides to change his mind." Marcus said trying to get things back on track.

"Can…Can you give us a minute to get our *Urk* stomachs to settle down?" Shinji asked trying to keep what was left of his breakfast from coming back up.

It took some time but everyone soon got over their dizziness. Asuka got a look at their surroundings it seems they drove into a forest somewhere off road. It looked very peaceful, the kind of place where one could have a picnic or take a nap under a tree without being disturbed.

"So where the hell are we?" Asuka asked still slightly green in the face.

"We should be outside the city, if Misato drove us to the right place that is."

"Of course I did, I just took a faster route."

"You call that a FASTER ROUTE, We would have been better off RIDING THE BUS HERE!" Asuka screamed out.

"Calm down Asuka, anyway everyone follow me so we can get going." Marcus instructed. He proceeded to walk into the woods with the others following.

"So where are you taking us?" Maya asked getting more and more suspicious as they moved further on. Marcus remained silent, which only further fueled her suspicion about his intentions.

"Excuse me?"

"…"

"Did you hear me or not."

"Maya calm down."

"…But Sempai-"

"MAYA WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THAT!"

"Sorry. But how do we know he isn't just taking us somewhere to hold us hostage or, to take advantage of us!"

"I'm sure Marcus wouldn't do anything like that, he's a nice guy. A bit weird at times, but a nice guy none the less."

"But what if that's just a front for his true intentions?" Maya soon started imagining the worst.

"Like?" Misato asked skeptically.

"What if he's thinking of killing us out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Why would he do that?" Shinji asked.

"Just for the thrill of it and so no one hears us scream!"

"Sounds like too much work just for that." Asuka mumbled.

"But what if he knocks us out and we all wake up to find we're missing some organs or limbs?"

"Isn't that an urban legend?" Ritsuko asked.

"Close to it, but the legend is about loosing your kidney to a complete stranger you meet at a bar." Misato piped in.

"I do not believe that is his intention." Rei said.

"Then what if he's taking us to some organization that will force us to work for them or else?"

"Don't we already do that?" Misato wisecracked. Ritsuko couldn't help giggling at the joke.

"Ok, fine but what if he captures us and sells us off as working girls because of some debt he can't pay off?"

"…Maya have you been reading those horror mystery novels again?"

"…"

"I swear, every time you get caught up in one of those things you get so paranoid over everything."

"No I swear I haven't read one in three weeks." Just after she finished saying that she bumped right into the back of Marcus. He was standing at the edge of a large open clearing staring into it.

"We're here" was all Marcus said, the group looked around expecting something obvious to stand out amongst the trees or maybe the bushes.

"Uh Marcus sir, I don't think theirs anything here."

"Trust me Shinji, this is the spot."

"Oh God I KNEW IT, WE FELL FOR HIS TRAP!" Maya started screaming out in a panic.

"Wait what now?" A now stumped Marcus asked.

"Maya calm down."

"What's all this about a trap?"

"She thinks you're going to kill us here or sell us off to the highest bidder." Asuka bluntly explained.

"…"

"Uh you ok?" Asuka asked as she waved her hand across Marcus's surprised face.

"…WHAT THE HELL!"

* * *

"Hey Doc it's me, you there or not?" The Hooded man said into a small portal-like opening he made with energy from his hand.

"_Yes I hear you loud and clear, do you have any good news for me?_" Said the blurry figure in the portal.

"Well so far the giant angel monster-thing I mentioned in my last report is dead now; it was an interesting fight to say the least, almost like the two Evangelions were dancing in sync."

"_My, my how very interesting, I'll have to take a look at the footage later. Tell me, were you able to get the armor samples I requested?_"

"…Yeeeaah about that it turns out… I couldn't find any after the battle was over."

"_Why the hell not?_"

"There wasn't enough damage done to the Evangelions to find anything, plus the crater they made was too hot for me to get close, and by the time it finally cooled down the recovery team had already arrived."

"…_fine then, what's the status on those wonderful machines now?_"

"Well their back at their base, and last I heard the pilots were going out somewhere for some time."

"_Well that's fine and dandy but I didn't ask about the useless pilots-wait where are they going?_"

"Don't really know I dismissed it as a field trip or something."

"_Weren't you even the slightest bit curious? I mean what if they decided to go train on their piloting skills; I prefer to be on top of-_"

"Yeah, yeah I know I know you want to know everything that's going on and stuff. Don't worry about it, I sent one of the more 'stealthier' Heartless to gather the info in my place."

"…_You didn't send one of the 'Invisible' or 'Stealth Sneaks' did you?_"

"Why the hell would I do that, the 'Invisibles' are only good at fighting not Intel gathering, and the 'Stealth Sneaks' are just too big to not notice when they take a step, besides I couldn't get anything out of them even if they did somehow succeeded, they act like the lizards their based off of."

"_Oh good I thought things would get out of hand, well what did you send?_"

"It was one of those new Heartless you assigned to me the 'Shadow Stealth' I believe?"

"_Aaahhahaha very good. A fine method for testing its capabilities in the field, well done._"

"I thought you'd like that." Not long after the hooded man said that, something began to rise up from his shadow. It resembled a ninja but with black antennas slicked back on the top of its head, and yellow eyes that looked like they glowed out of its mask, along with Kunai knife packs strapped onto both arms and legs. Once the new Heartless finished emerging from the mans' shadow it bowed to the hooded figure.

"Ah just in time what have you to report 'Shadow Stealth'?" The ninja-like Heartless stood up and smiled behind its mask.

* * *

"Ok Maya, are you feeling better now?"

"…Y-Yes." Maya answered with embarrassment.

"Are you sure now."

"Yes Sem-I mean Dr. Akagi."

"Alright then, Marcus you can go ahead now!"

"Ok, but was it really necessary to…hold her down like that?"

"You weren't there the first time, but trust me in the end we had to."

"Ok then, I'm just going to drop the subject now." Marcus turned away from the group and towards the open clearing. "Alright Nini you can go ahead and drop the 'Stealth cloak' now."

Within a split second of saying that, something in the clearing began to materialize before them, something big, really big. At first it looked like they were staring at a big dark blue wall with grey markings decorating it, but as they looked further to the side of it the group of Nerv members soon realized this huge 'wall' was in fact a ship of some kind.

"What is that?" an amazed Maya asked.

"This…is my Gummi Ship: The Sleipnir." Everyone looked on in awe.

"This is how I travel from world to world, taking down Heartless wherever they my lie in wait." As Marcus said this Ritsuko walked up to the ship and touched the outer haul. It had an elastic-like feel to it, yet it was sturdy enough not to budge an inch. Such an odd mineral she though; what sort of material is this thing made of?

"Alright now before we get on board, Misato have you and Ritsuko decided yet?"

"Well-"

"W-wait, what are you two talking about?" A slightly confused Shinji asked.

"…Is it ok if we tell them Ritsuko?"

"Tell us what?" Asuka now asked although it sounded more like she was demanding.

"Huh oh, uh yeah sure I don't see what wrong with it?"

"Wow Rits did you really hear what he said, or just decided to say whatever sounded good." Misato mumbled out, Ritsuko heard what she said and gave her a dirty look in response.

"Ok you two take it easy, we're all friends here. Now Shinji to answer your question, Misato and Ritsuko were deciding on which one of them will join us on our journey."

"But why is that Marcus sir?"

"Because it was the only way to get Gendo to agree to let Rei come with us to train."

"WHAT, 'WONDER GIRL' IS COMING TOO?"

"Wonder girl? Uh yeah Asuka, Rei is coming to train with her keyblade just like Shinji and yourself."

"*Grr* fine then I'll show you who's the better one between the three of us!" Asuka stated boldly pointing in Rei's direction. Rei didn't say anything in response but just looked in Asuka's direction.

"_Boy have I got a lot to teach them. Well a little peer rivalry might help move things along for them._" Marcus thought to himself. "So Misato did you and Ritsuko decide?"

"Oh right, well it turns out Ritsuko's gonna be busy with the data we collected on that last Angel so it'll be just me this time."

"I see, and what about you Ms. Ibiki?" Marcus asked now directing his attention toward Maya.

"…Huh?"

"It's not often people get a chance to go see other worlds, and according to the agreement; in order for Rei to join us we need at least one member of Nerv's own staff to accompany us, but no more then five. Shinji, Asuka, and Rei don't count."

"…It sounds like it would be great, but…I don't think I'll be joining you."

"Aw well, maybe next time then."

"Hey Maya, can you and Ritsuko take care of my place and feed Pen Pen while I'm gone?"

"Uh… sure I could do that." Maya answered.

"Don't worry about it Misato we'll take care of that."

"Thanks you two."

"ALRIGHT PEOPLE, LET's GET A MOVE ON!" Marcus announced like he was a tour guide.

"Bye guys, I'll see you when I get back." Misato said waving goodbye to the two women.

"Before we take off, Ritsuko I need to give you something." Marcus said walking up to the good doctor.

"What is it?" Ritsuko asked. Marcus reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar device.

"Isn't that your holo-link?"

"Yup, I'm giving you this in case you need to contact us for any reason. Gendo already knows but in case of an emergency my ship can get us back here quickly with the warp gummi I picked up on my last trip."

"Warp gummi?"

"It's a special gummi piece that will transport the gummi ship instantly to a previously visited world."

"Now I'm really curious about your ship and what it's made of."

"Maybe next time you can come with us and find out for yourself." Marcus said as he placed the Holo-link into Risukos' capable hands. Suddenly a hatch opened up on a higher up side of the ship, but before anyone could say anything a stairway with railing lowered down from said hatch.

"Not bad."

"Ok everyone lets go, everyone brought their necessities?" Marcus announced. They answered by lifting up their bags with a little follow up response.

"Yup."

"Yes."

"Got my stuff here."

"I have mine here too, but I need to go back for the rest."

"Alright then let's-wait what? Asuka I told you to pack only the necessary stuff."

"I did, but the rest of it is in my other bags."

"…What exactly do you have in that bag you brought with you, the stuff I told you to pack?"

"Yeah, but I figured that was just part of what we were packing. You didn't even tell us to pack any extra cloths, what's with that!"

"I'm getting you three special clothing for all the training, battling, and who knows what else we'll be doing!"

"…Special clothing?"

"Yes, now let's get on board."

"Uh Marcus, you should know that everyone else already did."

"What!" He looked around to confirm what Ritsuko said was true.

"Just couldn't wait, could they?" He said leading a slightly fuming Asuka into the ship. As they walked inside Marcus could hear both Risuko and (surprisingly) Maya saying their goodbyes as they backed up a distance, just to be safe. As soon as the hatch closed and the stairs retracted back into the ship, it began to lift up over the trees and took off into the wild blue yonder. On the ground Ritsuko began to have second thoughts about staying behind, and from looking at Maya she was probably thinking the same thing too. She put a hand on her colleague's shoulder getting her attention.

"Let's get going Maya; we have a lot of work to cover."

"Ok Sempai."

"…You're lucky no one was around to hear you call me that this time."

"I know."

* * *

Back on the ship Misato, Shinji, and Rei were all on the flight deck looking around at all the monitors and various other stuff.

"Wow, look at this place. Almost makes our stuff back at the base look obsolete."

"Misato, I think there's something you should see over here."

"What is it Shinji?"

The young pilot pointed at the window view and just said "That". When Misato followed Shinji's finger she was greeted with a breathtaking view, what she saw could only be described as a night sky filled with stars and bits of mesmerizing colors swirling thru it every now & then.

"Is this…are we in space?"

"Not quite Misato." Marcus said as he walked into the room with a slightly less angry Asuka. "What you see out there is actually a different form of space. It separates every world from each other, yet acts like a pathway to each one. We've always called it the 'lanes in between'."

"It's so pretty, I've always liked the view." A familiar sounding voice said surprising all but one person in the room. The owner of the voice appeared in a nearby monitor. "Hello everyone, it's good to see you all again." Said the girl known to most of the current group as Nini.

"Hey there."

"Hello again."

Instead of saying hello like Misato and Shinji did. Rei just nodded her hello.

"Who the hell is that?"

"Oh I forgot we didn't introduce you two yet. Asuka, this is Nini, Nini this is Asuka Langley Soryu." Marcus said getting the intros started.

"I'm pleased to finally meet you Miss Asuka. The pilot of the Evangelion unit-02."

"The pleasures all yours, but to truly admire my greatness you need to be here in person." At this Nini gave a small sad smile and said "But I am."

The response stumped Asuka, how could she be here if she wasn't in the room right now? She looked around to make sure she wasn't going to jump out and surprise her.

"You don't need to do that Miss Asuka, I'm right here in front of you." Asuka looked at the monitor again; she then started getting the idea behind Nini's words.

"You mean…"

"Now hold on a sec Nini, are you suggesting you're actually inside the computers in this room?" Misato started questioning when she started getting the general idea as well.

"That's not quite right Ms. Misato; I'm actually inside the entire networking system of the ship."

"What…that can't be possible."

"It is…because Nini isn't exactly human Misato, she's an A.I."

"An A.I? But she's so-"

"Human? Yeah, she is, that's part of what makes her different from an ordinary program. She can make choices and mistakes just the same as anyone, but she's very intelligent and great at gathering Intel."

"Please don't let this change anything between us; I'm still me after all." Nini said to the group, for the moment the group was silent. This made Nini slightly nervous; the thought of being despised crossed her mind. What if they thought it was just some bad joke or- before she continued her mental worry, Misato spoke up.

"It's a lot to take in at once, so forgive me for saying this is a lot of crazy weird crap. But then again Nerv deals in fighting the abnormal monsters we call Angels, so what another drop the old weird bucket."

"I agree with Captain Katsuragi." Rei spoke up.

"Me too just from the sound of it your still the same as us, just different in some ways." Shinji said, adding his own small opinion.

"…In all honesty I just met you, and so far you really haven't done anything to piss me off…yet, so you're ok in my book." Asuka said with her usual proud smile.

"Thank you."

* * *

"_So the pilots are going off world to train in using keyblades?_" the 'Shadow Stealth' nodded a yes to its creator.

"_I never even considered that an option. How very irritating, with more keyblade barers running around we just might have some minor problems. What do you think?"_

"…"

"_Hey are you listening? I said-"_

"I heard what you said, but I was too busy thinking why your 'little ninja' didn't mention that Marcus was with them!"

"_What? What the hell does that have to do with anything?_"

"It has a lot to do with ME doc, if I had known he was involved in this, I would of done it for free just for the pleasure of saying hello again and cutting him to as many pieces as possible."

"_Well if that's the case-"_

"Too late."

"…_Fine then, but even knowing this Marcus person is involved will this affect any or all of your assignments?_"

"It depends, what did you have in mind?"

"_I want you to follow them for the time being. Mess with them in anyway possible that does not involve giving yourself away, and if you can try to recruit some help in each world. The more help you get the better data and unique Heartless will be created and be under your control, and naturally mine as well._"

"And I can kill off one or two of-"

"_No._"

"WHAT! WHY THE HELL NOT!"

"_Because, I'm curious. I want to see if these so called pilots have the capabilities to even survive a real fight against true creatures of darkness. I only want you to step in if 'Marcus' decides to get involved. Just distract him, understood?_"

"Fine then, I can work with that. But I'll do that if and only IF I feel like it."

"…_As much as I'd like to argue with you on how much that contradicts what you just said earlier, I won't. I've already worked with you long enough to know there's no point to it._" The figure said rubbing his temples in annoyance.

* * *

Else where the Sleipnir made it's approach to an unusual looking tower on a small patch of land. A strange world to say the least thought Shinji.

"How the hell is it land if it's just floating around this place like that?" Asuka asked.

"Magic." Marcus simply said. Asuka's response was to stare at him like he was an idiot.

"Do you really expect me to go for a lame answer like that?"

"Why not? It's the truth."

"Oh come on, you expect me to believe that a couple of 'parlor tricks' are keeping that thing from floating away into oblivion!"

"Not that kind of magic Asuka, I'm talking about actual magic. The Mysterious Tower belongs to a very powerful Wizard/former Keyblade master. It's his enchantment that he cast upon this land that separates it from other worlds yet anchors it to this spot if 'he' so chooses."

"Former master? So he has retired now?"

"That's right Rei, but every now and then since his retirement he's contacted his fellow keyblade masters about any disturbances he's felt in the balance between light and darkness."

"So he calls you when the light switch is broken?" Asuka wise cracked.

*SMACK*

Only to find herself hit on the top of her head with a large paper fan.

"Oww, DAMN IT MISATO THAT HURTS!"

"That, wasn't, me!" Misato said with a hint of surprise in her voice. Asuka turned around to find a floating paper fan right behind her; she stared at it with wide eyes as it started vanishing out of sight.

"Wha-what the hell was that!"

"That Asuka was the masters' way of dealing with smartasses." Marcus said trying his best not to laugh.

"Sir Marcus, we've finished docking with the Mysterious Tower."

"Thank you Nini, we'll be back soon. Misato you coming?"

"…Uh yeah sure, I'd like to meet this guy myself." As they started their walk out of the Sleipnir Asuka turned to her fellow pilots and said-

"Please tell me you two saw the floating fan as well?"

They both nodded their heads in a yes manner. Asuka went back to rubbing her sore head.

"Geez that really hurt too."

"Well you did say something this 'wizard' didn't like." Shinji said trying to make some sense of it.

"Well he didn't have to use a fan!"

"Hey you three hurry up, we need to go see him now." Marcus called out to his three pupils.

"Some great Master, using a fan from a distance for discipline is just cheap."

*SMACK*

"OOWWW! ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT I'M GOING!"

End of chapter


	9. The Mysterious Tower

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Evangelion or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners.

The group of five stood before the Mysterious Tower's doors, four of the members were marveling at the strange structure. The tower was decorated with star & crescent moon symbols on its many pointy roofs and various other places, the roofs themselves were green while the rest was a beige color. The structure looked amazing yet it looked slightly bent in the middle, almost like someone tried to fix it after bending it to one side. Overall it looked like something out of a children's storybook come to life.

How such a structure could be so amazing yet look somewhat out of place was beyond Misato. "_I'm almost afraid to know what the inside looks like._"Misato thought to herself.

"Hey are you four coming inside, or are you just gonna stand there all day?" Marcus called out getting their attention. Misato, Asuka, and Shinji soon started walking up to the doors, but Rei just stood there looking at the Tower. Something about it seemed…familiar to her, yet she was certain she never saw this place before in all the time she's been-

"Is something wrong Rei?" She was slightly surprised when Shinji got her attention; she regained her composure before answering.

"I am fine pilot Ikari."

"Are you sure, you were staring at that building for quite a while."

"Yes, all my vital signs are normal."

Her response didn't really sit well with Shinji, she wasn't saying anything that tipped him off, but he just had a feeling.

"Hey you two, lets get a move on!" Misato called out to the two Eva pilots, the two walked over to join up with the group, yet their minds were still troubled over different reasons.

Upon entering the tower they discovered the 'lobby' to be…not as impressive as the Nerv members first thought. There was no furniture to speak of but the walls were decorated with columns, at the base of the stairs stood two small statues of pointy hats with the same crescent moon & star symbols as the rest of the tower.

"Not much to this place so far, I'm kinda disappointed." Asuka said looking around the room.

"Well don't be, this is just the first floor after all." Marcus said walking to the stairs. "Come on, we shouldn't keep Master Yen Sid waiting."

"So is that his name?" Misato asked as they ascended the stairs.

"Yup, like I said before; he's a powerful wizard that retired from the keyblade ways."

"If he's so powerful, then why did he retire?" Asuka asked, but soon caught sight of the next room they entered. It looked so vast in size almost like 20 feet wide yet it also had no floor to speak of (except the stairs) almost like a bottomless pit if one looked down past the stairs, all the logic in Asuka's mind tried to make sense of it already getting a headache (not to mention a slight panic attack since there were no railings, luckily the stairs were wider then they were earlier).

"I don't really know I only heard he made the announcement of his retirement, I was away at the time of his speech, strangely he gave no reason why to anyone other then fellow Masters…as the rumors went. But he still provided help and still taught what he could to the young apprentices until The Order fell." Marcus said still walking like he didn't notice the room he walked into.

"Hasn't anyone asked him?" Misato said also seemingly walking on like she didn't notice the room as well.

"Well anytime someone does he dismisses it as not important."

"Maybe it's too personal to tell?" Shinji guessed.

"Maybe Shinji, but I don't think he'll start talking about it anytime soon."

"OH COME ON, HOW ARE ALL OF YOU NOT NOTICING THIS DAMN ROOM!" Asuka blurted out.

"It is illogical for a room of this size to exist in this building when the structure did not have any resemblance to these current dimensions." Rei said in her usual monotone voice.

"Oh great 'Wonder girl' notices, but not the others? There HAS to be something wrong with this picture, and how the hell can you be so calm about all this?"

"There doesn't seem to be any signs of hostility as of yet, and our mentor has not instructed us to be on our guard, thus there is no need to do so at the moment." Rei concluded.

Asuka just stopped in her place and stared at Rei with an upset look for a while; she mumbled something in German and continued to follow the others up the stairs (quickening her pace so she would be in front of Rei).

They continued on in silence passing into the next room where they found something amazing. The room itself was average all around again decorated with Crescent moons & stars. There was a nice table in the middle of the room big enough for four to five people to eat at with plenty of elbow room. There were even some very comfortable looking chairs all set up on the tables edges (much like they do at restaurants when their cleaning the floors).

But that's not what got their attention, they were focused on who or 'what' was cleaning the room; they could only be described as walking wooden handle mops with arms carrying buckets of water and/or a few cleaning utensils. They were three of them cleaning up the place not even acknowledging the group that just walked in; one was just mopping the floor with its feet, the other one was focused on dusting every spot it could, the last one was busy polishing any and all furniture in the room. While they were cleaning they seemed to be doing so at an unheard rhythm, as they moved about in sync with one another. The four members of Nerv just stared in slight awe at the sight, even Rei was slightly surprised (the only indication of her surprise was her eyes widening slightly).

"Am…Am I the only one seeing mops cleaning up the room like maids?"

"You're not the only one Asuka, I see it too." Misato answered slowly. It was at that moment that the one that was mopping up the floor walked up to them and pointed them to one side of the room. Misato leaned close to Marcus and whispered to him.

"What's it doing?"

"He/it's telling us to go to that side of the room to move on." The mop nodded it's 'head' to confirm what Marcus said was true, it soon went back to the other side of the room to continue cleaning.

"…This has got to be the weirdest day I've ever had." Asuka stated still baffled at the current events that just unfolded.

They proceeded to follow the mops' instructions (translated by Marcus) and walked out of the room and into another bottomless pit-like room again, they proceeded up the tower to their destination. Along the way Shinji had the misfortune of stepping over a part of the floor that was still wet, luckily he didn't slip, but one of the mops noticed the shoe prints he left and threw its dirty rag at the boys face and proceeded to make gestures that demanded an apology for the shoe prints (needless to say it was an odd sight to see a boy giving apologies to a mop of all things).

They soon reached the last room's door, they stood there for a moment letting a few people catch their breath.

"Jeez *huff* just how *huff* many steps could one place need*puff*!" Asuka complained.

Make that MOST of the people in the group; Asuka and Misato were just slightly out of breath, Shinji however was more on the verge of coughing and wheezing, Rei was just as bad but she managed to control her breathing to a manageable speed.

"Are you four ok?" Marcus asked not showing any amount of fatigue.

"Yeah we're fan-fucking-tastic, how the hell do you THINK WE FEEL YOU STUPID BAKA!" Asuka blurted out when she managed to control her breathing again.

"I picked the worst time to stop going to the gym." Misato mumbled.

"Wow…and here I thought the pilots at least would be better off, what the hell does Gendo have you do?" Marcus commented.

"Oh shut up you." Misato said slapping him in the unarmored arm. He had a small laugh at the hit.

"Ok, ok I'm sorry about that, how about we wait until everyone's good & ready before we go see Master Yen Sid?" Before anyone could answer, the door he stood in front of opened up by itself.

"Or maybe not." Already three of the Nerv members were groaning out of frustration as they walked into the Sorcerer's chamber to see this power wizard.

A quick look around the room could tell anyone that it had a classroom & library-like chamber feel to it as it were; there were a few ornate pots set up against the wall with several bookshelves as well as wall mounted shelves all carrying books of many different sizes and colored covers. In one side of the room their stood an old fashion green chalkboard, right next to it was a tall green double door entryway. In the middle of the room their stood a wooden well crafted table with a large book and a skull that held a candle that mostly melted down covering the skull almost like it had wax for hair. Past the table their stood a tall wooden chair with green cushions, on the rooms wall behind the chair were four large windows, three in the shape of stars and one shaped like a crescent moon.

There standing by the crescent shaped window stood a tall man with his back turned to the group most likely the owner of the tower they came to visit Misato thought.

"Master Yen Sid, thank you for taking the time to see us sir." Marcus said bowing to the man now known as Yen Sid confirming what Misato suspected.

When Yen Sid was addressed he turned around to face the group, immediately Marcus stood at attention. When the others saw this they did the same, after all this was a master they should show some respect to the guy. Everyone stood at attention, although Asuka was a bit reluctant to do so and stayed at a more relaxed position. After all why the hell should she do the same when the guy used his magic to smack her on her head earli-suddenly she stood at attention like the others with a slightly nervous look on her face. (and a mild amount of panic.)

When Yen Sid turned around to look at the group, he couldn't help but think to himself everyone always seems to act the same way whenever he meets someone new. Yen Sid looked to be around his early 50's or so, he was wearing a long blue wizards robe with light blue trim, upon his head he wore a tall pointy cone shaped blue hat with yellow stars and crescent moon shapes. His hair was mostly gray, especially his long beard, but what really got their attention (especially Asuka) were his eyes; they were big & wide with small pupils. The way he'd stare at you one would think he was not just looking at you, but at your very thoughts & soul with an angry look in his eyes.

"_Those eyes of his could probably give Commander Ikari a run for his money._" Misato thought before she pushed that thought aside quickly as if to hide it from Yen Sid.

"Really now Master Marcus, I thought you didn't like to be so formal?" The Sorcerer said with an amused smile.

"Yes well, old habits you know. Besides sir, I always show respect to a fellow master as one always should." Marcus said relaxing some. Yen Sid nodded at the comment and proceeded to sit down in his chair, he soon gestured to the others to do the same.

"Please have a seat." Immediately after Yen Sid said that, several mops marched in with extra chairs for everyone. As everyone sat down Shinji couldn't help but notice one of the mops seemed to be looking straight at him, or he assumed it was staring at him for a good while as the other mops left the room, just before it followed its fellow cleaners it gave Shinji a few gestures that said '_I've got my 'eyes' on you_'.

"What're you staring at?" Asuka asked when she noticed Shinji looking in the main doors direction.

"I think that was the same mop from earlier." Shinji answered.

"You mean the one you pissed off for messing up the clean floor?"

"Well yes, I think it's still mad at me."

"Awe, is the mighty Shinji Ikari scared of little cleaning instrument?" Asuka said in a mocking tone.

"I-I am not!"

"Oh, sure looked like it when it gave… you….. the…" Asuka slowly stopped herself when she noticed Yen Sid was giving her an intense stare of disapproval. Asuka visibly sunk down in her seat, feeling pretty insignificant, a feeling she never liked.

"Well then, let's get down to business shall we?" Marcus said trying to get back to the main reason for their visit as well as trying to get past the slight awkward moment.

"Very well then, according to what you requested: You would need some special clothing for your young pupils. Correct?" Yen Sid stated.

"Yes sir."

"And of course you speak of the same enchanted clothing we would issue to all new Key barers back when the Order was still around."

"Yes sir. Can it be done?"

"Of Course, but only if your students have proven themselves as Key barers." Yen Sid said now looking in the children's direction. The three pilots out of panic stood up at attention even the ever calm Rei was visibly sweating out of slight panic, this was not something she was use to…as a matter of fact there was a lot of strange feeling lately that she wasn't use to. Was there something wrong with her, or does it have anything to do with Marcus's sudden appearance?

Marcus gave Master Yen Sid a nod of understanding and turned to the three children. "Asuka, Rei, Shinji, go ahead and show Master Yen Sid how far you've come."

Already Asuka's confident smile returned as she held her hand out, Rei followed suit and did the same as Asuka (minus the smile, but she did compose herself again), Shinji did the same as his fellow pilots. In a flash of light three keyblades appeared in their hands. (One to each of course)

Yen Sid gave an approving nod & smile to the young apprentices before saying "Very good."

* * *

A pair of eyes fluttered open seeing nothing but darkness around her. "_It's so dark, where am I?_" she thought. As she let her eyes adjust to the darkness, she tried to feel around to get a better idea of her surroundings. Wherever she was she was definitely not tied up or gagged, a good sign.

Her hand felt a mat that was underneath her most likely her bed, so far so good she guessed, at least it was comfortable.

She moved her hand further across the mat away from her only to suddenly feel a fence or wall of some kind not that far from her, not good. It didn't take her long to figure out what she was in; it was a cage wide enough for her to sleep lying down comfortably, yet only tall enough to allow her to sit up without hitting her head against the top of the cage.

She started to panic, why was this happening to her, what did she ever do to deserve this? She started thrashing about trying desperately to break out. She tried to scream for help, only to find her voice was silent. Why couldn't she speak, this can't be happening she continued to scream in her head. In a desperate attempt at freedom she grabbed onto the sides of her cage and started kicking with all her might against the far side of the small prison. The only thought that ran thru her mind was 'I gotta get out, I gotta get out, I gotta get out!' over and over again, she continued to kick the cage with as much strength as she could muster up, but no matter how hard she kicked, the cage just wouldn't give.

The poor girl didn't stop until she felt someone's gentle fingers hold onto her right hand, she immediately freaked out and pulled her hand away and quickly tucked herself into the left side of her cage. Luckily her eyes had adjusted enough to see who had grabbed her; the person in question was a female with long blonde hair, her eyes couldn't be seen clearly in the dark, but the observer was almost certain they were blue. This blonde girl was wearing some sort of hospital gown, but it had a back to it, that can't be right she thought, and dark colored shorts (again it was too dark to tell which color). The blonde gave her a sympathetic yet comforting look, the poor girl calmed down some.

"I know what you're going thru, you don't have to be afraid of me." The blonde spoke slightly startling the other girl.

"After all we're all in the same boat." The blonde girl spoke. It took a while for her words to sink in, and once they did, the girl finally noticed that this girl was also in a cage like her own. She then looked behind her and noticed a young man with brown hair wearing the same outfit as her neighbor, upon closer inspection of her own person, she found herself in the same clothing as well. On her left side there was another girl with black hair, and the same outfit like the others. The girl next tried to look in the direction where she kicked the cage, overlooking the fact her kicks did absolutely no damage to the cage, she tried to look into the darkness to see if there was anyone else.

"Don't bother." She turned to the blonde girl.

"I've been here long enough to know, there are many more people in cages like this one." The blonde said with a sad tone in her voice. Out of reflex the speechless girl tried to ask a question, only to be reminded she couldn't talk.

"Don't worry about your missing voice, it'll come back in time." The blonde reassured her. The girl felt relieved knowing this.

"Even if you get your voice back try not to talk too much or too loud, Ok?" The girl nodded yes, unsure why she would have to.

"None of us talk out loud because 'they' don't seem to like us to talk." The girl gave her blonde acquaintance a questioning look that was trying to ask '_they who'_. Her unspoken question soon got its answer when an unseen door opened up, followed by the lights suddenly turning on. The girl was blinded for a moment before her eyes readjusted again, to her horror she found the blonde girls earlier words to be true; her own cage was just one part of one long & large row of cages lined up with several other rows of cages, almost all of them had a person in them all wearing the same thing like herself.

Suddenly something else got her attention. It was a sound like squeaking wheels on a push-cart, for what she considered a half hour or so that sound kept going every so often getting slightly louder as time moved on. Eventually she caught sight of the source of the noise a few rows away from her. Just as she figured, it was a cart and it was carrying trays of food, she could tell because she finally caught a whiff of the food & it smelled delicious to her.

From her angle she couldn't see who was pushing it, but from the reactions of some of her fellow captives it was not understandable; most seemed to be mixed reactions of fear, anger, and… happiness? Or was it contempt? She wasn't sure, but she'd get her answer when the cart came over to her aisle of cages.

* * *

"Hmm, this is very fascinating." Yen Sid said as he examined Shinji's keyblade. At the moment the owner of said keyblade was in the other room with Asuka & Rei, getting measured and fitted for their new wardrobe, as they were doing this Yen Sid instructed the three of them to leave their keyblades with him so he could examine their weapons abilities and strengths.

"How does it look Master Yen Sid?" Marcus asked.

"I've never seen such a design on this kind of keyblade before, it doesn't seem to resemble anything that I know of." Yen Sid said looking at said keyblade.

The keyblade in question was in a relatively simple form much like the well known Kingdom key which unlike most other keyblades could change its form by switching its keychain on the bottom of the blade. This one bared some resemblance to the legendary keyblade, but not by much, for one thing it did look like a giant cartoon-like key with a square shaped handle guard. One of the big differences was the color scheme; the blade itself was purple while the handle guard was green. The other difference was this one had two Topaz triangular cut jewels imbedded into the handle guard (one on each side), the strange thing Yen Sid noticed about them was the more he looked at them, the more he felt they were staring back. '_How very curious_' he thought.

"So uh Master Yen Sid sir, does that mean something's wrong with Shinji's keyblade?" Misato asked still slightly nervous around the sorcerer. Yen Sid just smiled at the way Misato was worried.

"No Ms. Katsuragi, it just means there's something different about this one, however that goes the same for the other two." Yen Sid said looking at the two other keyblades on his table. Asuka & Rei's keyblades were no different in form from Shinji's, but again the difference was in color and 'decorations'; Asuka's blade was red while the handle guard was green, while Rei's blade was blue with a white handle guard. On Asuka's handle guard four emerald colored orbs were imbedded in the keyblade (two on each side of the guard), Rei's had a single Crimson orb imbedded on the blade itself just above the handle guard. Each of these jewels was roughly the size of an eyeball, and again when Yen Sid looked into each one they seemed to be staring back. At the bottom of all three keyblades there rested a keychain with the Nerv half leaf symbol hanging on the end of the chains.

"How much different are we talking about Master Yen Sid?" Marcus asked curious as to what he was dealing with.

"I can't say for sure, but I think you would be more familiar with this then I." Yen Sid said to Marcus.

"Marcus what's he talking about?" Misato asked.

"…He's referring to my own keyblade, but that shouldn't make any sense Master Yen Sid, my siblings and I were the only ones with those kinds of keyblades, so how?" Marcus said in astonishment.

"Marcus I don't think anyone ever told you this, but if a Master interacts with their students enough before their power is realized, the students tend to gain some properties of that Master's powers." Yen Sid stated.

Marcus stayed quiet for a while thinking it over, while Misato was starting to worry about him.

"Marcus." He turned to Misato at the mention of his name.

"Is there a problem?" Misato asked not really sure what to expect from this new info.

"…Well no Misato this just means I'll have to add some new plans to their training, I guess." Marcus said still somewhat surprised.

"Now Marcus, you shouldn't worry so much about it, if anything you should be flattered. Most students don't always take after their teachers like this." Yen Sid said.

"I guess, but this just doesn't help me out, this'll be my first time teaching as a Master. I'm more use to working on a team then training new keybarers." Marcus said with some worry in his voice. Yen Sid couldn't help but smile before saying-

"Marcus, you needn't worry, you're just nervous is all it happens to all new Keybarers with the Mark of Mastery." Yen Sid said reassuring the green haired man.

"…"

"Come on Marcus, there's no need to be so nervous. Those three are already trained in teamwork…sorta, so that's already something less to worry about. Besides I'm sure they won't be any trouble after all: Rei & Shinji are ok with it, and Asuka is more then willing to try it out." Misato said. Yen Sid turned in her direction and couldn't help but ask her something.

"That reminds me, why are you going along with this Ms. Katsuragi? Under normal circumstances you would not be aloud to come along to other worlds, and Marcus would be punished for disturbing the world order the way he has."

"…"

"There's no need to worry about the circumstances, I trust in Marcus's judgment I am merely curious is all."

"Well… sir… as I said earlier I'm here as part of Nerv's-"

"I'm well aware of the deal young Marcus has made with your organization, but with all due respect that is not what I'm asking." Yen Sid said interrupting Misato. "Now I'll ask again and please be honest, why are you going along with them when you could be threatening the world order?" He asked again with no hint of anger, hatred, or malice in his voice, just curiosity with a hint of humor at the start of his sentence. Misato sat quietly for awhile, just when she was about to answer Yen Sid, the green doors to her right opened up, and out stepped the three Nerv pilots in their new outfits.

Shinji's was wearing a Dark blue zip-up Jacket (the jacket was left unzipped), underneath it he wore a white shirt with two black streaks running from his right shoulder to his left hip area. In the lower areas he wore a pair of long azure blue colored shorts, and white shoes with two blue streaks running from the back heel to the front toe area.

Asuka's outfit consisted of a red short sleeved bottom-up jacket with green shoulders (the top button was the only one buttoned up), a black tight under shirt, red fingerless gloves with black colored palms ,red shorts, two belts wrapped around her waist in a slightly loose fashion, and her red shoes were white colored in the toe area.

Rei's outfit was quite different. It consisted of a white body suit that covered her from half way up her neck (yet it didn't cover her arms) to the top part of her legs well past her hips, blue vest, white elastic gloves, two belt straps across her chest from her left hip to her right shoulder (the belts where under the vest), blue skirt, blue shoes with two white streaks running from the back heel to the front toe area.

After a moment of taking in their new wardrobe Misato spoke. "Whoa, not bad you three look pretty good."

Yen Sid gave them an approving nod. "Yes now you look like true 'keyblade warriors', I hope everything went well in there, Flora, Fauna, and Marryweather can be…'difficult' at times." Yen Sid said.

"I wouldn't say 'difficult', more like 'damn near impossible'! I thought it was funny when they argued over Shinji's color scheme, but it got old after an hour." Asuka said pointing at Shinji's outfit for emphasis. Shinji blushed at the thought, during that time Shinji tried to say something to get the three from arguing over what color looked best on him, but he kept getting cut off when the three Fairies continued to argue, instead his outfit ended up changing colors from Red, to Blue, and Green until Asuka got impatient and yell at them to make up their minds.

"Bare them no ill will, they just get caught up in the moment when it comes to primary colors." Yen Sid said with an amused smile.

"Yeah well at the very least they could of given me a metal plated arm or something for the trouble." Asuka said eyeing Marcus's silver armor plated left arm.

"What like this?" Marcus said raising the mentioned armor.

"Sorry Asuka, but you can't get one of these babies yet. You've gotta earn it."

"Oh that's just great, so how long would it take to get the entire set?" Asuka rhetorically asked. At this remark Marcus got up from his seat and walked to the middle of the room.

"Not as long as you may think." With that Marcus slapped the shoulder area of his left arm, in an instant he was surrounded by a flash of light when it died down, there standing in Marcus's place was an armor clad Knight with horns coming out of the sides of the helmet, the armor was mostly colored black with green on the chest plate, hands, feet, and tips of his horns.

Asuka was left speechless, not noticing that Shinji and Misato weren't.

"Wow Marcus your armor still looks pretty good, even after that 'Jet Alone incident'." Misato said surprised the suit of armor wasn't in worse shape.

"Like I said before Misato, this armor isn't your average piece of metal." The armor clad Marcus said turning to her.

"Jet Alone incident?" Yen Sid said with a single eye brow raised up.

(AN: If you think I'm treading sensitive ground here at the following summerization of the Jet Alone episode, please feel free to tell me and I'll re-edit this part.)

"Oh, that was a near cataclysmic incident, a rival organization decided to create their own means to defend themselves by making a 'weapon' that was supposed to be better then Nerv's. The thing was powered with a nuclear core that pretty much spelled 'stupid' in my opinion. Not long after its activation things got out of hand, and Marcus, Shinji & I had to step in to stop it from going critical. Long story short Marcus and I managed to keep the core from melting down while Shinji kept it from getting into any populated areas." Misato said purposely leaving out the details of the fact it was a nuclear powered robot, not for secrecies sake, more for the fact she didn't want to explain about robots to a sorcerer that most likely didn't bother with technology, or that's the impression she thought she got from him.

"…So this 'weapon', it wouldn't happen to have been some 'giant robot' would it?" Yen Sid asked with a knowing grin on his face. Misato was slightly surprised by this.

"How did-"

"My dear, I may be a powerful Sorcerer, but I am no stranger to science & technology."

"Oh."

"Besides, Marcus's young assistant: Nini told me all about it."

"…Oh."

Yen Sid couldn't help but laugh a little good heartedly while Marcus returned to his original wardrobe, he turned to the three pilots. "Well I believe that is all I can do for you, from here on I can not provide you with anything else but this bit of advice to each of you." As he said this the three keybarer's walked up to his desk and stood at attention, Yen Sid picked up Rei's keyblade and held the handle to her.

"To You Young Rei Ayanami I offer you this: Do not take you life for granite so easily, all life has value." Rei took her keyblade and nodded to the old master. Next he picked up Shinji's keyblade and held it out to him in the same manner as Rei's.

"To you Young Shinji Ikari I offer you this: listen and follow what your heart says." Shinji took his keyblade yet he was slightly confused from what Yen Sid said. "You'll understand when the opportunities present themselves." Yen Sid said as he picked up Asuka's keyblade last and presented to her handle first.

"And finally to Young Asuka Langley Soryu I offer you this: Do not force something when you have trouble with it, it will only make matters worse." Although his words carried no threatening tone they still sent a chill down Asuka's spine, she had no idea why though. She soon shook it off for now and took her keyblade in hand.

"Now you three are ready to begin your journey, I wish you all good luck." Yen Sid said giving the three an approving smile.

"Thank you sir." All three said at once.

"Well then, I guess it's time for us to go." Marcus said with a satisfied look on his face. "Thank you Master Yen Sid for everything." He said bowing to the former Keyblade Master.

"It is no trouble Master Marcus." Yen Sid said showing the same amount of respect to Marcus. "Take care not to do anything to foolish." He said with a hint of amusement.

"Yes sir." And with that the group proceeded to walk to the door, but just before Misato finished walking out-

"Just a minute Miss Katsuragi." When Yen Sid got her attention she turned to him.

"I have a bit of advice for you as well."

"Ok then, what is it?" Misato asked.

"No matter what happens, never forget the bonds you share with your friends." Yen Sid said.

"Thank you Master Yen Sid sir." Misato said awkwardly before closing the door behind her. Yen Sid couldn't help but smile to himself.

"_I'm surprised Marcus is still wearing that emblem._" Yen Sid thought to himself, remembering the emblem of three keyblades crossing over one another on Marcus's back as he exited the room.

"_But then again it shouldn't come as any surprise; after all it means so much to him._"

* * *

When Misato walked out the door after Yen Sid's Advice, she was surprised to see the 'lobby' room again. "What the, oh right I forgot where I am." She spotted Marcus and the three Nerv pilots waiting by the front door, she walked down the stairs getting their attention.

"Hey Misato, what kept ya." Marcus said greeting the Violet haired woman.

"Oh just a last minute talk with Yen Sid is all."

"I see, well then let's get going." Marcus said as he proceeded to open the double doors for everyone.

"So uh, where are we going to next?" Shinji asked as the group walked back to the Sleipnir, which was docked on the side of the floating land mass.

"For now, we head back to our own quadrant, and we'll see what world comes up first. In the mean time we'll start the training sessions for you three."

"Sounds like a plan." Misato said.

"Roger" Rei said.

"Ok then." Shinji said.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see how much greater I'll be by the end of it!" Asuka said excitedly.

Unknown to the group, they were being watched from a distance by what appeared to be a purple colored dragon with wings for arms, and powerful legs with sharp talons, it was well known as a 'Wyvern'. On its back there stood the ninja-like appearance of the 'Shadow Stealth', it continued to watch as the Sleipnir began to take off to parts unknown. With a quick pat on the dragons back it flew back to their master's lab to give him the new information on their targets.

In his room looking out thru his window, Yen Sid couldn't help but feel something wasn't right in the pit of his stomach, almost like something bad was going to happen, but to who? He did have his suspicions that Marcus's group were in for some troubling times.

"_I just hope they'll be ready when the time does come._"

End of chapter

(The next chapter will finally take place on a different world not counting this one. I'd like to thank you readers for sticking around as long as you have, I know I've delayed that part for nine chapters, but then again if I rushed the story then it probably wouldn't be going as well as it has so far. So again Thank you all and feel free to review.)


	10. Martial Artists and Keyblades

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, Kingdom Hearts, or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They all belong to their rightful owners.

"_Are you three ready?_" Marcus said over the ear piece communicators.

The ones on the receiving end were currently standing in the middle of an empty road in an unknown disserted city during sunset. The only source of light came from the street lights, not that it would have mattered soon. The three new keybarers had their keyblades in hand at the ready for anything.

"Yes sensei." Rei said.

"I think I am." Shinji said.

"I'm good and ready." Asuka said with her signature smirk ever present on her face.

"_Good, the next wave of Heartless is coming your way, brace yourselves_!"

True to his words, the black beings known as Heartless began charging & jumping out of most of the dark corners and nearby alleyways, swarming the streets within minutes. The number of Heartless was one thing, but there were also different varieties of them charging the streets as well. Varieties like: the floating ball shaped ones with teeth 'Dark Balls', the dragon-like 'Wyverns', the strong winged broad sword wielding 'Invisibles', and many of the helmet wearing 'Soldiers', not to mention the child sized 'Shadows', and their taller counterparts 'Neo-Shadows'.

"I think there's more Heartless this time." Shinji said looking at the shear number of enemies headed their way.

"Well duh, what did you expect; their numbers to decrease or something?" Asuka retorted.

"Their numbers do seem to have doubled since the last wave." Rei observed.

"All the more ass for me to kick, just step back and watch!" Asuka said just before she charged into the fray, followed by Shinji & Rei despite what Asuka said.

Asukas first swing took out five Heartless at once, effectively starting the fight. With each following swing of her keyblade, she tried to take out more (or at the very least the same amount) but after that first swing they started keeping their distance before attacking. Despite this, Asuka still managed to thin out the numbers pretty well with her savage slashes.

Shinji for his part took a more precautious style as opposed to Asuka's berserker gung-ho style. Instead of swinging like mad, he chose to wait and time his attacks…even if he missed some of the times. Despite the trouble he had with it, he managed to take out a fair share of Heartless.

Rei's way of fighting was almost hard to tell, it looked like she was trying to swing her keyblade kendo style yet she tried to stay elusive to her enemies, almost like a tennis player getting ready to move. The combination of the two didn't seem to work well together for her, but she still managed to decrease the number of her enemies…with some difficulty. After all she had never taken Kendo classes, and the only thing she knew about it was to hold the sword with both hands. Other then that she didn't have a clue how to use a sword, and it was costing her as she was getting tired very quickly.

Within no time the Heartless started to swarm around her, leaving her with more trouble as she was running out of healing potions she had picked up earlier. It didn't take long for Shinji to notice Rei's predicament, and the moment he took out the last Heartless standing in his way he ran to help her. Unfortunately an 'Invisible' flew out at him leaving Shinji no choice but to block the attack, he ended up locking swords with it one trying to overpower the other. In this situation he couldn't move to help Rei without risking getting attacked from behind by his opponent, after all this thing could easily out maneuver him if he wasn't careful. Under these circumstances he had no choice…

"Asuka! Rei needs help!"

"I'm kinda busy here!" Asuka called back while she was fighting off a 'Dark Ball' that nearly bite her head. The damn thing is flying around to fast she thought, it annoyed her like hell knowing that some flying black beach ball with teeth was getting the better of her.

"ASUKA!"

"OH FINE THEN!" With that last angry word she did what she did best in these kinds of situations, she kicked the source of her anger with all her rage induced might. Normally her kicks or punches on the source of her anger would either fall over a good two or three feet from her (or fall at her feet if it was a kick to a guys' 'lower region'), however since she now was in possession of a keyblade the fiery red-head's kick caused the 'Dark Ball' to be sent flying up and away from sight until it was nothing but a speck on the horizon. As much as Asuka would have liked gloating about her achievement (perhaps later she thought) but if she didn't get to Rei fast they'd-

*BRRRRRR*

Suddenly a loud buzzer rang out and the hoard of Heartless stopped completely still. Then they started to dissolve into what appeared to be tiny squares which disappeared into nothings, soon the buildings and the very sky followed suit. The only thing that wasn't dissolving in this fashion was the three keybarers who watched as this strange event unfolded before them. Soon the entire place was gone and now they stood in a fairly large room, the place looked to be a cross between a dojo and a gym. This was evident with the number of basic workout equipment which included: a work out bench, a treadmill, weights, and a punching bag. The dojo half was mostly the look of the room, if you didn't count the martial arts mat set up on one side of the floor, and what appeared to be a training dummy. The three were standing on a platform with a control console set up close by, where their Sensei was currently standing by with a not so pleased look on his face. He wasn't upset per say but he wasn't exactly proud either, if anything he was closer to being disappointed.

"Well I can honestly say I'm impressed you three made it to the seventh round on your first try, I really didn't think you would make it past the fourth round."

Two out of the three felt some pride out of what Marcus said.

"However there are quite a few things we need to work on." Marcus said with no hint of amusement.

"For example, Shinji those counter attacks you pulled (or tried to) could use some more work, for now stick with regular swordplay until we can work on it."

"Y-yes sir."

"Rei, have you ever had any experience with a sword before in any way?"

"No sensei."

"Well then we'll need to go thru some of the basics, can't send you out in a real fight completely inexperienced."

"Understood."

"So there is something 'wonder girl' can't do." Asuka said with a smartass grin.

"I wouldn't be saying anything if I were you Asuka." Marcus said getting the German redheads' attention.

"First off you managed to collect the most potions, why didn't you give any to the others or use them when your teammates needed them?"

"It's not my fault these two aren't good enough to find any of their own." Asuka said with a slightly annoyed tone.

"That's not the point." Marcus sighed out before continuing. "Second, the way you swing your sword around, your treating it like a caveman's' club."

Asuka couldn't say anything there while Marcus continued on.

"Your keyblades are not just some fancy new weapons, their essentially a part of your very beings." He said now addressing all three of them. "You three will have to find the right style that suits you and your blade, but you won't be doing this alone. After all not only do you have me to help…you also have each other." Marcus said as he softens his tone and gave a small smile. Just when he was about to say something, his com-link lightly beeped before a voice started talking in it.

"_Sir Marcus we found a world suitable to stop at._"

"Thanks Nini, we just finished anyway so we'll be heading back to the flight deck now."

"_Ok._" With that the line went silent as Marcus started addressing his young students.

"Well my young apprentices, it looks like we found a place to get some supplies, so let's take five." He said as he started walking out of the room gesturing the others to follow.

"Great, I was starting to get tired of eating those tasteless rations." Asuka said while she left the room with the others. It didn't take long for the four to get to the flight deck and when they did Misato was looking out thru the main view window at the world they came across. Marcus couldn't help but notice how Misato was staring at the current world with slight bewilderment, a quick look around the room told him Shinji & Asuka had the same look on their faces. He couldn't blame them of course; after all he had the same reaction when he looked at a world for the first time in 'the lanes in-between'. The current world the Nerv members were looking at looked like a mass of land that was pulled out of the earth, much like the Mysterious Tower. However, unlike that world this one didn't look as 'natural'; it looked to be a town with a School, a Dojo with a Japanese house, and a Japanese Mansion sticking out the most of it. Over all it almost resembled a pop-up book.

"What the hell's with this world, why does it look like…that!" Asuka said voicing the other Nerv members' thoughts.

"Hmhmhm, well Asuka that's just how these worlds look like in the 'lanes in-between'." Marcus said.

"…you can't be serious." Asuka said looking at him with an annoyed stare.

"I'm not kidding." Marcus said with a slight smile on his face.

"Makes me wonder how our world looks." Misato said still looking at this world before her. "So anyway how did the training go in that 'holo-simulator thing'?"

"Sorry to interrupt you Ms. Misato, but it's not really accurate to simply call it a simulator, when in fact the Ultra digital battle simulator or U.D.B.S can do so much more then just create a hologram. The U.D.B.S creates a digital plane of one's own choosing, then digitizes the person and places him or her in that digital environment to do with what you choose." Nini piped in.

"Oh, I see. Sounds like something Ritsuko would love to hear about." Misato said.

"Well anyway to answer your question Misato; the battles went well, I'll tell you about it as we go get some groceries." Marcus said as the ship started to make it's decent.

**Nermia Japan**

As the Sleipnir began to enter the 'stratosphere', the inhabitants never noticed that the ship went into its cloaking mode. Not even one particular inhabitant who happened to be watching the clouds from his roof, although it technically wasn't his roof or his house for that matter. For quite some time now he and his father(also referred to as 'Old man' or Pops) have been living with his fathers' friend/fellow student of the 'Anything Goes' school of Martial Arts , along with his three daughters.

"Oh Ranma, is that you up there?"

Speaking of the three daughters, the eldest one seems to want something.

"Oh hey Kasumi, what's up?" The black haired pig-tailed Martial Artist asked.

"Could you come with me? There are some ingredients I need to go get and I can't carry them alone." As Kasumi was explaining her request, Ranma took the time to jump off the roof and land with little to no effort needed to speak with her face to face.

"Sure thing but what about Pops or your dad?"

"I'm afraid Father & Mr. Saotome are a bit busy at the moment."

* * *

The two mentioned father figures were in fact busy with quite a struggle.

"It's your move Saotome." Soun said as he moved his piece.

…Over a game of Shogi it would seem.

"Hmm, indeed it is Tendo." Genma said getting nervous as he saw himself in a slight amount of trouble as Soun (or Mr. Tendo for those of you who don't know his first name) seemed to have cornered him, at the rate this game was going he would loose in a few turns…unless…

"OH MY GOD, WHAT'S THAT THING BEHIND YOU!" Genma screamed in alarm, Soun quickly turned around to see what his old friend was talking about. As Mr. Tendo turned around Mr. Saotome quickly turned the board around, and just as quickly went back to his original position before his friend Soun turned back around.

"I don't see anything Saotome."

"Hmm must have been my imagination." He said taking his turn like nothing happened.

* * *

"Hmm, that figures." Ranma mumbled out.

"Well then, shall we get going?" Kasumi said as she walked to the front gate.

"Ok then." Ranma said as he followed behind her. The walk to their destination seem to be uneventful so far, hopefully nothing will-

"OH, Ranma darling!"

Ranma sighed and took a look back and could easily see the Tendo homes front door. "Not even five feet from the door, and already something bad just came our way." He said as one of his lest favorite people ever, came running up to him. Kodachi stopped right if front of Ranma completely ignoring Kasumi's presents.

"Ranma darling, I have come to give you a gift." Kodachi said as she held up the mentioned gift, it was a box in colorful wrapping paper complete with a bow. Ranma just stared at it with suspicion.

"All right, what's in it?" He asked while keeping the box at arms length.

"Why Ranma, what ever do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean; did you put some sorta paralyzing gas or sleeping poisoned baked treats in this thing?"

"Oh Ranma, how could you think such a thing?" Kodachi said sounding genuinely hurt by the comment.

"Because every time you give me something like this I usually end up stiff as a statue, fast asleep, bandaged up, or my 'favorite' BLACKMAILED!" Ranma said with as much sarcasm as he could muster up for that last part.

"Now now Ranma, You shouldn't be so rude. It is a gift after all, what harm could it do to look?" Kasumi said unknowingly helping Kodachi.

"A lot actually." Ranma mumbled to himself before moving his hand slowly towards the bow treating it like it was about to explode or something…with his luck it and considering who gave it to him it just might he thought. Kodachi watched with much interest, the closer Ranma's hand got to opening the present the more excided she got.

Every inch Ranma undid the bow got her more anxious, almost to the point where she was about to rush him to open it. Kasumi watched as well wondering what could be inside the present, until she remembered what they were going to do. Kodachi could hardly wait just one more inch away from the great unveiling, but before Ranma could finish pulling the ribbon loose Kasumi quickly grabbed his hand and began to run past Kasumi while pulling Ranma along. This caused Ranma to drop the gift to the floor where it landed by Kodachi's feet, the box itself burst open spraying a thick purple gas into the air around the 'Black Rose of the Kuno family' who was too slow to react and ended up breathing the gas in. When the smoke cleared Kodachi was in a panicked like-state standing completely still, she barely managed to say something between clinched teeth.

"Ran…ma…wait…"

* * *

"Kasumi, what are you doing?"

"I'm sorry Ranma but if we don't hurry, the store with the most important ingredients will close soon." She said still pulling the martial artist by his arm, but suddenly he pulled away and quickly scooped her into his arms in one quick motion.

"If we need to hurry up, then this'll be the fastest way! Hold on!" Right away Ranma started leaping onto a nearby fence then onto the nearest rooftop. From that point he started hopping rooftop to rooftop all the way to their destination.

* * *

"So then, anyone have any preferences?" Marcus asked the group.

"Beer. Lots and lots of beer." Misato simply said. The others couldn't help but sweatdrop at the remark.

"O-k then, moving on." Marcus said. At the moment the group was busy looking thru different grocery stores for whatever they could use for cooking or some instant foods for those times when there's no time to cook. So far they'd been at it for awhile and they didn't seem to find much, either because they didn't have anything they wanted or because they wandered into the wrong stores somehow.

"Marcus sir?"

"Yes Shinji?"

"Why don't we just take a look around for ourselves, I don't think they have our favorites in this world." Shinji said as he kept the last part down as to not draw attention.

"Hmm, you have a point there, but I can't just let you wonder off on your own considering we're in unfamiliar territory." Marcus said as he gave it some though, not long after he said that he dug into his pocket and pulled out something and put it in both Shinji's & Asuka's hands'. "Take this and don't wonder too far from Misato and me."

"Well it's about time someone saw that I could be-" When Asuka looked at what was in her hand and it didn't look like any form of currency she'd ever seen. "What the hell is this?" she asked with a twitching eyebrow.

"It's munny."

"I know what money is, and this is not money!" Asuka said while shoving the objects inches away from Marcus's face, the object was a yellow octahedron. (For those of you that don't know what an octahedron is, picture two pyramids connected to each other by the bottom sides in a way that mirrors one another)

"Of course it is, what you're holding is the universal currency known as 'munny'."

"…in what universe is this even considered currency?" Asuka retorted.

"It's simple, just give it a squeeze from two points on it and you'll see what I mean." Marcus instructed.

For a moment Asuka was going to just dismiss it as stupid talk, but then again he really didn't seem as stupid as she first thought. In the end she decided to just do what he said...this time, she then picked one of the smaller bit of munny and squeezed it between her pointer & thumb. To her surprise the small shiny object popped back up and changed into some yen.

"H-how did…"

"That's the magic of munny. It has the ability to change into the necessary form of cash that is needed on each world, and depending on the size of the munny is how much it's worth." Marcus said.

"How convenient." Asuka said with a small hint of sarcasm before saying "isn't this considered counterfeit?"

"Not really you see-" suddenly Asuka was bumped from behind and would have crashed into Shinji if she didn't catch herself in time.

"Oh sorry about that."

"Watch where you're going you idiot!" Asuka said as she turned to yell at the person who bumped into her.

"HEY, who the hell are you calling an idiot?"

"YOU ya stupid baka!"

"BAKA? Why you little-"

"Heyheyhey, take it easy you two!"Marcus said getting in-between the two before things got ugly. "Asuka take it easy, it was only an accident."

"Humph." Was the only thing that came from Asuka. Marcus then turned to the young man Asuka was yelling at. The person seemed to be around his teenage years, his hair was black and tied up in a single braided pig tail, and blue eyes that burned with a true fighter's spirit as far as Marcus could tell. The Teenager was wearing a red Chinese fighting Gi, loose dark blue pants, and black karate shoes.

"I'm sorry about that; she's just a little…on edge thanks to being stuck with nothing but tasteless rations for nearly a week."

"I hate those damn things." Asuka mumbled.

"I see." The young man said with some sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh my, is there something wrong?"

Everyone turned their attentions to the owner of the unfamiliar yet kind voice. The women who spoke up was a brunet with her hair tied by a bow, brown eyes and just about radiated kindness. She was wearing a yellow blouse, long pink skirt, and a white apron, but there was something about her that Marcus couldn't quite put his finger on.

"No no everything's fine, it was just a little misunderstanding is all." Misato stepped in to say, when all of a sudden a low growling sound was heard. Everyone soon followed the source of the sound to the only person that remained quite the whole time, and she was slightly blushing for her part.

"Rei, was that you?" Marcus asked.

Rei just nodded her head.

"Oh you poor dear, haven't you eaten yet?"

"I have not had anything yet."

"That's actually why were here shopping. You see we ran out of rations while traveling so we're taking this opportunity to restock on food." Marcus said.

"Oh my, well perhaps you'd like to come over to our home and eat something?" The woman offered.

"Whoa whoa whoa, Kasumi are you sure about this? I mean their complete strangers we just met! Hell we don't even know their names!"

"Oh Ranma, I appreciate you worrying about our safety, but still it just wouldn't sit well with me knowing someone is in need of help and I wasn't able to do anything about it." The woman now identified as Kasumi said.

"Wow, she's pretty nice. I don't think I've ever met anyone as nice before since…." Shinji mumbled to himself.

"We appreciate the offer, but we couldn't possibly accept. We wouldn't want to be an inconvenience." Marcus said in an apologetic tone, however Shinji & Asuka were thinking differently. Although they were stuck with nothing but sealed up packs of rations, to those two it was better then eating whatever Misato would attempt to cook. Shinji could still remember the noodles Misato had made when Risuko had come to their apartment once, he still couldn't believe it was even possible to ruin instant noodles as badly as Misato had.

"Oh it's no trouble at all, I'm quite use to feeding a large number of people at once." Kasumi said with a warm smile.

"Well then if you insist, then thank you for the kind offer." Marcus said giving a respectful bow. Asuka & Shinji could be seen behind Misato sighing in relief, after all this was suppose to be Misato's night to cook.

Ranma couldn't help but sigh in annoyance, it wasn't the fact that Kasumi was being nice to some complete strangers, but it was the fact that there was someone in that group who already got on his nerves within only a few seconds of meeting...he couldn't help but think if it was a new record for him or not.

* * *

"Miss Kuno, p-please calm down."

*crash*

"I will do no such thing Sasuke, who does that Tendo girl think she is running away with MY Ranma, and hitting me with my own paralyzing poison gas? That thieving wretch!" Kodachi complained to the only other person in her bedroom with her, the loyal short ninja servant: Sasuke. Kodachi herself was currently in her bed recovering from her own poison thanks to the antidote Sasuke provided.

"Please Miss Kuno, you shouldn't move around so much. You need your rest or the antidote won't be able to work thru your system fast enough." Sasuke said to his mistress, worrying about her well being.

"…"

"Now please Miss Kuno what happened to you?"

"…It's all that Tendo girls' fault." She said clinching onto her blanket.

"How is it Akane tendo used your own-"

"Not her, that infernal sister of hers'."

"…Nabiki?"

"NO, THE ELDEST ONE YOU FOOL!"

"W-WHAT? That can't be right Miss Kuno; Miss Kasumi is the kindest person I've ever met…among the three Tendo sisters." Sasuke started saying until he was getting angered looks from Kodachi.

"Well its true Sasuke, She just took my present and threw it back at me without a reason or apology! And worst of all; THAT WRETCH RAN OF WITH MY FUTURE HUSBAND!" She said in an enraged tone.

"Yes I believe you already mentioned that part, but Miss Kuno that doesn't sound like something Miss Kasumi would do, especially the 'not apologizing' part."

"Mark my words Sasuke; Kasumi Tendo will pay for her crimes."

"What crimes, my mistress?"

"Isn't it obvious Sasuke; She took my darling Ranma away to have her way with him!" She said going into one of her wild assumptions again.

Sasuke naturally didn't believe her theory, and for good reason; at one point when he was spying on the Tendo's resident, he over heard some talk about how Kasumi and Dr. Tofu were about to finally go out on a date.

"Somehow I don't think-"

"Just you wait Kasumi Tendo; I will make you pay for this indignity."

"Why wait?"

Kodachi and Sasuke quickly turned to the room's door where a black cloaked man stood the only other person who had just talked.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in Miss Kodachi's room!" Sasuke said standing ready to fight as best as he could.

"Oh please forgive me; I was just trying to find my way home when somehow I suddenly wondered in this lovely mansion." The cloaked man said with a fake sounding lost tone.

"So not going to tell me hmm? Then I shall force you!" Sasuke said before charging at the stranger that might threaten the young lords' sister, normally he would not be this brave or bold in regular situations, however when a member of the Kuno family is in danger it is his duty to do what he can to protect him or her. But just as he was closing in to attack, an arm wrapped itself around his neck while another one tied his arms behind his back, leaving Sasuke at the mercy of his captive.

"I'm sorry, but you'll need to beat my friend first before getting to me." The cloaked man said with a hint of amusement in his voice. Sasuke struggled against his captor as best he could, but nothing seemed to work. Not even stepping on his opponents' foot, every stomp was met with nothing but the floor and the sound of a foot sliding against the floor. However Sasuke managed to get enough movement to at least look at his captor's face. The face was mostly covered by a ninja mask that he was familiar with (being a ninja himself, even if he wasn't one of the best), but the eye's is what drew his attention. The eyes were completely yellow with no signs of pupils.

"Wha-what is this?" Sasuke said in surprise.

"That is what happens when someone thinks they can just rush me without thinking of the consequences." The hooded man said.

"Excuse me, but I would like to know what you are doing in my bedroom?" Kodachi demanded as she tried to reach for her battle ribbon.

"Please, there's no need for conflict. I'm here to…offer a little help for your quest of gratification." The cloaked man said.

"What do you mean?" Kodachi said now curious about the mysterious mans offer.

"I mean I can give you power, more then enough power to pay back that 'wretched woman'." The hooded man said as he slowly strolled to Kodachi's bedside.

"Power? What kind of power?" Kodachi said getting slightly nervous as the man came close to her. When he was standing right next to her bed, he leaned in close to the black haired teen and began to whisper ever so softly into her ear.

"The power to control your own personal army of course." With that said he snapped his fingers (surprisingly loud considering his hands were gloved). Suddenly the room was filled with various dark creatures of different sizes and shapes, some of them resembled creatures or beings that Kodachi could scarcely recognized while others looked like nothing she could even imagine. The man stepped back and began to talk in a slightly louder tone.

"An army that will follow your every order without fail."

Kodachi started to look around at the shear number of these …creatures.

"An army that can replenish its numbers easily."

Then the wheels in the girls head started turning.

"An army that never needs to eat, sleep, or be paid for any reason."

The look of surprise began to leave the 'black rose's' face.

"And most importantly; an army that can take down the 'infernal Tendo woman', hell while we're at it why not send them to take on anyone who even looks at you funny!"

The previously mentioned wheels in Kodachi's head began to spin even faster now.

"Oh and let's not forget about that boy of yours." The man said hinting at where he was now going with this.

"My darling Ranma will finally be mine and mine alone?"

And that 'hint' seemed to hit home.

"Why yes, your dear Ranma will be all yours."

"Yes a lovely bonus to such an interesting army."

"Indeed."

"And with it I could easily remove those 'fake' fiancées of Ranma's!"

"Yes that's the-wait what's this about fiancées?"

"With this powerful army I could easily take down Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, and that 'pig tailed girl' in one fall swoop, as well as that dastardly Kasumi!" She started saying before she started laughing in her usual annoying way.

"AAAHHAHA AH HA AH HA AHHAAHHAAHHAAA!"

"Man that laugh is getting on my nerves." The cloaked man mumbled while thinking to himself (as best as he could anyway) "_This Ranma guy's got four girls after him for marriage? This guy must be some player._"

End of chapter


	11. Martial Artists and Keyblades Pt2

Hello readers, sorry for taking so long posting the new chapter. The only excuse I have is on my profile, which was posted there for some time now. Hopfully this new chapter will make up for my absence, and before anyone asks me in reviews or private messages no I'm not quitting on this story anytime soon. I just needed some time to myself is all, anyway lets get on with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, Kingdom Hearts or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners. (which is not me.)

"Are you sure those two are gonna be ok with carrying everything back to your R.V, I mean they don't even know the way to the Tendo dojo?" Ranma asked as now the group consisting of himself, Kasumi, Misato, Asuka, and Rei made their way to the dojo. While Marcus & Shinji took the much needed groceries back to the Sleipnir, with some reluctance they graciously refused Ranma's offer to help them carry their supplies (for obvious reasons of course).

"Oh yeah sure, don't worry about them. Besides once we get the general idea for directions, Rei can go and lead them back." Misato explained.

"…I still don't feel any better about it, but I guess it doesn't matter at the moment." Ranma said as he was carrying Kasumi's groceries for her that consisted of: two large boxes, and three large bags on top of the boxes. Ranma didn't mind too much considering he's more then strong enough to carry it all with ease.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure those two are gonna be just fine." Misato said with confidents.

* * *

"Hold on a bit longer Shinji, we're almost there."

"I-If you say so."

Marcus and Shinji were at the moment on their way back to the Sleipnir. The Keyblade Master was carrying the heavier bags and packages (there was a sale on bundled products) while Shinji carried some of the lighter (yet still high in number) bags. Naturally they caught unwanted attention with the number of stuff they were carrying without using a better means of carrying the huge load, a fact that was proven as several people were either staring with odd looks or whispering about them.

Despite all the attention Shinji has gotten since he became one of Nerv's pilots, he still wasn't use to so many people staring at him.

"_This is a little bit embarrassing_." Shinji thought to himself. "_At least it's not any worst._"

Suddenly he felt a pair of arms squeeze him around the waist while the owner of said arms called out-

"SHAMPOO MY LOVE!"

Shinji started freaking out from the surprise embrace from behind and nearly dropped the bags in the process.

"I told you I could catch up to you, which means now you have to kiss me!" The stranger said as he grabbed Shinji by the chin and turned his head to the 'assaulter' face to face. The person Shinji was now facing was in his teens about the same age as himself with blue eyes, and long black hair that reached to the middle of his back.

"A WHAT?"

"Hmm? What's wrong with your voice Shampoo, it almost sounds like…"

"I CAN'T KISS YOU; I'M NOT EVEN INTO OTHER GUYS!"

At this the stranger let go and jumped back. "Wait…don't tell me…" The boy said as he started looking around on his person for something. The teen soon pulled out a pair of glasses with big thick lenses and proceeded to put them on. The teenage boy got a good look at his supposed 'target', and in turn Shinji got a good look at his 'assailant'; he was wearing a white Chinese robe with long & wide sleeves, loose blue pants, and the same fighting type shoes Ranma wore. The teen standing before the two off-worlders finally finished adjusting his glasses and looked at the person he had 'glomped'. The look on his face turned from curious to surprised.

"OH NO, I DID IT AGAIN!"

Overly surprised.

"Ah-I'm so sorry about that, but I thought you were-WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING, I DON'T HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN! I NEED TO FIND MY ONE TRUE LOVE!" And with that he ran past the two keybarers screaming out 'SHAMMPOOOOOooooooo' the whole way.

"…what was that all about?" Shinji asked to no one in particular.

"I'm…not really sure Shinji, but maybe we can ask her." Marcus said gesturing towards an alleyway where someone was apparently hiding.

"You can come out Miss, he's gone." Marcus called out to the alleyway, where the person he was addressing stepped out. The person who stepped out was a girl (just as Marcus had indicated) with lavender hair, wearing a pink Chinese dress with matching loose pants.

"How did 'armored man' know?" The girl asked speaking in slightly broken Japanese.

"Well, I only caught a glimpse of your hair when you ran in right before Shinji had that 'close encounter', I couldn't tell much from that until 'Mr. affectionate' started talking."

"Uh Marcus sir could you stop mentioning that part, I'm still a bit freaked out."

"Sorry about that." Marcus laughed nervously. "Anyway with all that, I just put two & two together."

"You is very clever man, thank you for not telling Mousse where I was." The lavender haired girl said.

"Your welcome. My name's Marcus and this young man here is my apprentice Shinji." When Marcus gestured to Shinji he didn't get a response from the boy as Shinji was apparently busy staring at the lavender haired girl in a state of awe.

"Is you Ok?" The lavender haired girl asked unknowingly making it worse for Shinji as she had leaned in closer to his face. He started blushing almost immediately.

"Well, I is Shampoo: proud Chinese Amazon is nice to meet you." The Amazon announced.

"Likewise." Marcus said giving a polite bow as best he could with the number of stuff he had to carry.

"Is you new in town, Shampoo never see you around here before?"

"Actually yes, we were on our way to drop off these supplies before we 'met' you're…acquaintance Mousse."

"Hi-yah, I is sorry for stupid Mousse thinking you is me. Without glasses on he no can see well, don't know why he not wear them all time." Shampoo said to Shinji.

"I-It's alright n-no harm done." Shinji said as he started nervously laughing to himself.

"Anyway, Shampoo would offer to help, but is too too busy with delivery of noodles." She said as she held up a box carrier with said content inside.

"I see, well what if we agree to meet back here once we're done with our errands?" Marcus suggested.

"That sound like good idea, after I done with delivery shampoo can help with directions around town, maybe we meet with Airen later."

"_Airen?_" Shinji thought to himself. "_I wonder what that means?_"

"See you later!" Marcus called out to the lavender haired Amazon as she took her leave, soon the two 'pack mules' were back to walking to the Sleipnir.

"Marcus Sir."

"Yes Shinji?"

"Do you know what 'Airen' means?"

* * *

Back with Misato and the others they had made it to the Tendo's humble abode. The property consisted of two buildings: one was the dojo where most of the physical training usually took place, and the house itself. Misato, Asuka, Rei, Ranma, and Kasumi were currently standing at the front of the door when Kasumi had turned to the 'distant travelers' and said-

"Welcome to our home."

"Wow, you don't see too many of these old fashion houses back home." Misato mumbled to herself as Rei looked around without saying a word.

"It's not bad I guess." Asuka said not really caring about someone's house when her stomach was calling out for food.

"Gee, how nice of you." Ranma mumbled.

"Please, come inside." Kasumi said inviting the three. Upon stepping in Kasumi called out "Hello is anyone home?"

"Oh hey Kasumi, welcome back." A voice called back.

"Hey, what about me?"

"And you too Ranma."

"Hello Akane." Kasumi called out to the voices' owner. The mentioned person soon walked to the front door, the person was a young teen female with dark blue hair, and brown eyes. She was wearing a yellow sweater, with a red long skirt, and slippers. The girl now identified as Akane was surprised to see three strangers with her older sister and Fiancé Ranma.

"Oh uh, hello there." Akane said trying to be polite.

"Hi there sorry for intruding like this, but Kasumi here insisted." Misato said while waving 'hello' to the new girl.

"Akane; could you help out our guests while I go get lunch ready?" Kasumi asked the youngest Tendo sister.

"Sure."

"Ranma; you can go ahead and put those in the kitchen."

"Yeah ok." With that said Ranma proceeded to drop off the groceries.

"Hey Rei; why don't you go ahead and get Marcus and Shinji, they should be done getting the supplies to the 'R.V.' by now." Misato suggested to the paled skinned girl.

"Understood."

"Let me go with you, I can be your guide around town." Akane said.

"It is not necessary."

"I insist." Akane said as she began walking out the door with the light blue haired girl in tow. "I wouldn't feel right if I let you go off alone around here."

"I am capable of protecting myself thank you." Rei simply said even as she was pulled by the arm out of the Tendo residents.

"_Just from looking at you, I'd say there was no way. But then again weirder things have happened around here._" Akane thought to herself as they walked past the front entrance and out of the others sight.

"Well…I think wonder girl just met her match." Asuka mumbled out.

* * *

"So, what's this place called again?"

"It 'Cat Café', is where Shampoo work with Great Grandmother & Moose."

"…"

"You wait here, while Shampoo go and talk to Great Grandmother, then we go off to show you town."

"Ok sure."

"…"

As the two waited outside of the 'Cat Café' for their guide to return, Marcus looked over at Shinji's gloomy face and couldn't help but think to himself "_Poor Shinji, not long into a crush and already had been denied without being told the 'lets just be friends' line. Guess I took care of that part in a way._" Marcus couldn't help but feel guilty about it, after all it's not like Shinji new that 'Airen' meant 'husband' in Chinese.

"…"

"You ok Shinji; you haven't said a thing since we got back to the Sleipnir."

"…Yeah, I'm ok."

"Are you sure, 'cause if you need to talk I'm hear to listen."

"…No, not right now…but thank you." Shinji said genuinely thankful and slightly surprised for the gesture of kindness.

"Anytime Shinji." Marcus said giving the boy a warm smile.

"Is you two having a moment?"

Marcus & Shinji were surprised by Shampoo's sudden appearance; it amazed Marcus that they didn't even hear her coming.

"Gaah, when did you get here?" Shinji blurted out.

"Just now, I finish talking with Great Grandmother. We can go meet up with you friends now, yes?" Shampoo said with a cute smile.

"Great and she's ok with you doing this in the middle of work?" Marcus asked.

"Yes, but only if you speak to Great Grandmother after we find friends." Shampoo said pointing to Marcus.

"Uh Shampoo, why would your…Great Grandmother want to talk to Marcus?" Shinji asked not really sure if he should be worried about it or not.

"Don't know, Great grandmother would not say." Shampoo said shrugging her shoulders.

"Well I don't see the harm in talking to her, so sure I'll do it after we get back to the others at the Tendo dojo." Marcus said.

"Hi-yah, you no mention they at Tendo dojo!"

"Is that going to be a problem?" Shinji asked.

"No problem, Shampoo knows way like back of hand." Shampoo said as she started walking with Shinji & Marcus following behind. Unbeknownst to the group of three a certain black ninja-like creature was keeping its yellow eye on them for its cloaked partner, and his…questionable ally.

* * *

At the same moment, Rei and Akane were looking around the shopping area for Rei's two 'companions'.

"Is that one of them?"

"No."

"O-k then, what about that one."

"That one does not resemble sensei or Shinji Ikari."

"Grrrrrrr."

With very little success.

"I didn't think it would be this hard finding someone partly wearing armor." Akane said fuming at their difficult task.

"Perhaps they are not here then." Rei said as she looked to Akane for acknowledgment.

"Well then, where else should we look?" Akane asked.

"How about around Ukyo's place?"

"That might wor-Aaah!" Akane started to say before she realized it was Ranma talking now and not Rei. How she snuck up on her without her knowing was beyond her.

"Hey." Ranma simply said.

"What the-Ranma? What are you doing here?" Akane said now upset, if not embarrassed from the surprise hello.

"I just happened to be in the area." He answered.

"Yeah right, and I suppose you're not here to keep an eye out on us 'defenseless girls'."

"Now where the hell did you get that from?" Ranma snapped back, getting angrier as the argument started to escalate.

As the two continued their 'shouting contest', Rei decided to scan the area one more time for her companions. Just as she thought, they were not in this area. Since that was the case she figured she should try to get her guide to lead her to this other place Ranma mentioned.

"UNCUTE STUBBORN ASS!"

"STUPID PERVERT!"

"HOT -TEMPERED TOMBOY!

"PIG TAILED JERK!"

Of course her next thought was to try to go off on her own while Akane & Ranma kept themselves busy. Just as she began to walk off something in the nearby crowd caught her eye, something small, black, and unfriendly looking. She couldn't get a good look at the thing, but it was safe to say it was a Heartless. This Heartless looked to be jumping away from something or someone, but even if that wasn't or was the case as a 'keybarer' it was now part of her duty to deal with any Heartless incidents that may occur.

"RANMA JUST LEAVE ALREADY YOU JERK, WHAT, YOU DON'T THINK I CAN HANDLE THIS?"

"I NEVER SAID THAT, AND IF YOU'RE GONNA BE LIKE THAT THEN I'LL JUST-uhmff." Ranma was suddenly shoved back, not enough to push him down but enough for someone to run by him. And that someone was Rei Ayanami.

"Hey, where're you going?" Ranma called out. When he didn't get an answer he grunted and said "What's her deal?"

"I don't know, but-"

"AAAAHHH!" The crowd around the two started screaming, and running away in a panic.

"What going on?" Akane wondered.

"I don't know, but that girl Rei is running towards the cause of this panic!" Ranma said as he noticed where said person was running to.

"We gotta go help her Ranma!" Akane said running after Rei.

"Akane wait!" with that Ranma followed close behind the two girls.

* * *

The Heartless kept jumping and dodging its opponents' attacks not to save itself from harm, but to toy with him until more Heartless arrive. This prey is an interesting one thou; the young man's clothing consisted of a yellow headband with black spots on it like a cheetah, his shirt was a dirty yellow color, his pants were a slightly dark green with black kung fu shoes (I seriously don't know what their really suppose to be called). Overall the boy didn't look like much at first glance, but he did prove to have a lot of stamina so far. Even if this one is lasting longer then 'it' expected, it won't matter in a few minutes. 'By then this fool should be tired out, and once he does he will easily fall to our larger numbers' the heartless thought.

"Get back here you little freak!" The young teenage boy called out to the strange black creature. The boy was trying everything he could to get the little thing for trying to attack some defenseless people.

Every swing of his fists would result in the thing ducking or side stepping, with every kick it would jump over the attack and kick off the extended leg for a higher jump. It was starting to get on his nerves; luckily they were in a nearby construction site, and there were no bystanders in the vicinity.

"_At least no one'll get hurt while we fight._"

Suddenly twenty more black creatures began to appear all around him in a circle, preventing him from escaping. Some were the size of small children with yellow eyes and antennae. While others seemed to wear little bits of armor on their hands and feet, to top it off the helmet these ones wore opened up like a clam with a pointy tip and tail-like maim on the top of said helmets. The last set was a strange looking bunch to say the least, they seemed to be the same as the others in some aspect besides the obvious differences; their skin-like substance was just as black coated as the others, but the 'skin' seemed to have some small spikes sticking out on their limbs. They seemed to wear some kind of red leotard that coved them up like a one peace swim suit giving them a female appearance, and their hair (surprisingly enough) was made of dark green prickly vines that were tied up into a pony tail. These specific creatures seemed...familiar to the young man.

"_No one…except me that is_." He thought digestively.

The Heartless began to slowly move in on their prey, step by ever so eager step. Savoring the juicy moment and the feeling of hopelessness that would soon take over the teen. But this one seemed to have more fight in him then most others, that fact unfortunately made the young man more desirable to the Heartless.

"_Ok out numbered by unknown creatures, and no matter how hard I try to hit them it doesn't seem to effect them…I think I'm in trouble…unless.._."

As the Heartless moved closer to the young man, he raised his finger to the sky and thrust it down to the ground shouting "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"

The moment his finger touched the ground a large crack began to form with chunks of gravel, rocks, and pieces of concrete flying out towards those that were the closest. To the Heartless' surprise, the attack was effective, as the end results of the aftermath was three less Heartless in the group and two that took a lot of damage from the attack.

"Ha got you guys that time, now whose next?" Before any of the Heartless even knew what happened, they felt something familiar coming up their way. It was almost like-

"HAAAAA!" With a slight battle cry, Rei swung her keyblade at some of the closest Heartless. The surprise attack managed to eliminate two heartless alone, but now the others were aware of her presence. Immediately they turned their attention on the blue haired keybarer.

"Akan-"At first glance the young man thought the new comer was Akane from the short blue hair, and almost called out to her by name. But when he realized the color of the girls' hair was in fact a lighter blue compared to Akanes' darker blue color, and her skin was a pale white color while akanes or most people for that matter were in more of… warmer colors.

"H-hey you, get out of here quick before they attack!" The boy cried out to Rei.

"Targets identified as four 'Shadows', five 'Soldiers', and six unknown Heartless. Is there any information on them?" She asked on her com-link.

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

"_I hear you Miss Rei; please give me a moment to identify the unknown ones._" Nini said on her end.

"Understood, standing by."

"Hello? There's a bunch of monster-things around here, you need to run while you still have the chance!" The young bandana wearing man nearly screamed out in annoyance.

"I can not do that."

"Well why not?"

"Because it's-"

"_Miss Rei, I have the info you needed._"

"Understood."

"Understood? What the hell kind of answer is that?"

"I wasn't talking to you." Rei said now looking in the persons' direction.

"Wha?" the teen said somewhat baffled at the answer for a moment.

"Please proceed." She said talking to Nini again.

"_Ok well as it turns out those six are not in the data base, they could very well be a new species of Heartless. I'm sorry Miss Rei, but more data will be required, in the mean time I'll contact the others and tell them the situation._"

"Understood."

"DAMN IT, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"

"Ryoga is that you? Immediately the young man turned to the person who called out his name.

"Akane? Quick get out of here while there's still a chance!" Ryoga called out.

"What going-" Before she knew what was going on, the six leotard wearing Heartless leaped at her wielding what looked like batons with fireballs on each end. In unison the six of them started twirling their batons in one hand at high speed, in less then a second fireballs began to rain down on Akane. Out of surprise she held up her arm to guard herself from the attack when suddenly-

"AKANE!" Ranma managed to grab her and leap to a safe place where he put her back down on her feet.

"Are you ok?" He asked out of concern.

"Yeah, thanks Ranma." Akane said. She then turned to the spot where she had previously been standing; in that spot there was a large smoldering area that looked like a small blasting zone. Whatever else was still there was incinerated to ash.

"Those things were trying to kill me." Akane said in nearly a whisper.

"They won't get away with that." Ranma said now marching up to the six vine haired Heartless. At first they seemed to step back as they remembered their orders; 1. Capture or wipe out Akane Tendo, Shampoo, Ukyo, and the Pig-tailed girl (whoever or wherever she was), 2. (And most importantly the very order they were having trouble with at the moment.) Do not bring any form of harm to Ranma Saotome under any circumstances! Naturally they hesitated for a moment before they remembered the top order that overrides all others from the true master: In the event an order or orders' from the third party bring some trouble to the current assignment at hand… SCREW THE ORDER AND KILL ALL THAT STAND IN YOUR WAY!

With that they smiled a devilish smile and began their assault on the pig-tailed Martial Artist. They charged with their 'weapons' ready to burn him to a crisp, with great pleasure. However Ranma did not back down, in fact he stood in a fighting stance and called out one thing.

"KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"

With that Ranmas' fists started pummeling the six Heartless at such a high speed, his arms almost created the illusion of multiple arms punching away one after the other. The six Heartless could not stand the barrage for very long and soon exploded into a black smoke while six crystal shaped hearts floated up and away from the smoke.

* * *

**Meanwhile earlier.**

Ryoga was surprised to see Ranma save Akane, even though he didn't like Ranma that much at least he knew she would be safe with him for the time being.

"Look out!" Rei said as she shoved Ryoga out of the way of one of the 'Shadows' claws.

"Uh thanks I guess." Ryoga said as he got back into his fighting stance, ready to fight full force now.

"Are you still able to fight?" Rei asked as they now stood back to back.

"Does this answer your question, BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Again his attack had effective results as he damaged Heartless not fast enough to dodge it. Rei for her part started swinging her keyblade with poor swings once again, with her inability to properly wield her blade it only got harder for her. Thankfully she had some help this time instead of fighting on her own back in the simulator, each time she would slash a Heartless it would in turn be sent flying back a bit until its inevitable demise. She was doing ok until a 'Solider' attacked her from behind with its spinning attack (for those that don't know the Solider basically spins itself like a top with its claws and one foot extended), the attack hit hard into her back knocking her into the floor. Luckily for Rei she got just the foot part of the attack, and not the claws. However as she tried to get up, the Heartless continued its' assault by jumping at her with its claws extended and ready to tear her to shreds. Rei was able to turn enough to see the attack coming and quickly rolled off to the side, leaving the Heartless to swipe at nothing but air. Before the armored 'Solider' could look at its target again, Rei slashed the Heartless into smoke and another floating 'heart'.

Ryoga was having no problems with the Heartless now as he punched and kicked their faces and nonexistent teeth in. He even back handed one into a nearby boulder. Before he knew it there was only one left, and it happened to be the one he was chasing earlier.

"So we meet again you little bastard." Ryoga said dangerously as he cracked his knuckles. He knew there was no denying that this was that very same creature, it had a different helmet 'tail' from the other 'Soldiers'. Before he moved he saw the blue haired girl from earlier in the corner of his eye, she looked like she was going to attack it.

"Wait!" Ryoga said to Rei. She in turn looked in his direction.

"I'll handle this one." He said as he looked at her with a form of determination Rei had not seen before, not even on Asuka's face. Then again it wasn't a look of pride or revenge, it was more of a look of…Righteous anger? Or something like that.

"Very well then." Rei said as she put her keyblade away on her back. Under normal circumstances Rei would not even consider letting a civilian fight even a single Heartless by himself, but something about that look told her it was ok to let him handle it.

As Ryoga marched up to his soon to be 'punching bag', the 'Solider' was not moving from its' spot. It wasn't in a Heartless to just run from a fight (unless it was one of those white fungus types, they never put up any form of fight). It watched Ryoga for some opening it could use, but as he got closer one such moment never presented itself. It was left with only one option left then; go down fighting…just the way 'it' liked it. Ryoga took his fist and swung with all his might at the little monster, in response said little monster stood his ground and got ready to attack when suddenly, Ryoga stopped within inches of the 'Soldiers' face. In the blink of an eye the solider was gone, leaving everyone baffled for the moment.

"Hey wha-"

"What the hell were you thinking Ryoga?" Ranma said to his long time rival.

"What?" Ryoga said still confused as to what happened.

"Why'd you let it go?"

"Grr, it's not like I did that on purpose! Something stopped me!" He yelled at Ranma, leaving the fellow Martial Artist confused. When Ranma didn't say anything Ryoga continued.

"It felt like my entire body was paralyzed and unresponsive. No matter how much I wanted to pound that little bastard into dust, my body just wouldn't move an inch."

"How could that be?" Akane wondered.

"I believe I might have a clue as to why." Rei said getting all eyes on her.

"Just before you began your attack, I saw what seemed to be a knife-like object flying in your general direction. I didn't pay it any attention when I figured out the object wasn't flying directly at you. However, the moment it hit your shadow was the moment you froze in place. Knowing this it is possible the unknown knife was the cause of your sudden pause in momentum."

"Rei, did you happen to see where the knife came from?" Akane asked.

"I'm afraid not." Rei answered.

"Well then, did anyone see what happened to that…'thing'?" Akane asked the group.

"No."

"Nope."

"Sorry akane but no, and I was the closest."

"Great solved one mystery and ended up with another." Ranma said as he scratched the back of his head in irritation.

"I hate these kinds of things!" Ryoga practically shouted out while scratching his head like he had a bad case of fleas.

"Although it seems we are all safe at the moment." Rei said as she observed the area around them.

"It does look that way." Akane agreed.

"Maybe we are, but there's no telling if those things are already running around the town." Ryoga said.

"Hmm…I guess we should-"

"Give me a moment, I'll ask about the towns' status." Rei said as she reached up and seemed to click something in her ear.

"This is Rei Ayanami, Nini do you copy?" Ranma & Ryoga seemed to just look at each other and wonder at the same time 'Who's Nini?" Akane on the other hand just looked at Rei with a flabbergasted look.

"Rei…what is that?" Akane asked with the same look not leaving her face.

"It's my com-link." She simply answered and went back to listening to the device.

"Do the others in your group have those too?"

"Only Sensei, Shinji Ikari, and Asuka Langley Soryu."

"And…you had that thing with you…the whole time, when we could have just called them!" Akane started yelling out.

"I am not suppose to use it, unless it's an emergency."

At this Akane couldn't control herself anymore, but as she started to roll up her sleeves Ranma quickly grabbed her from behind.

"LET ME GO RANMA, LET ME GO RIGHT NOW!" She yelled out trying to break free of her Fiancés' hold on her.

"Calm down Akane, Rei's not the enemy here!"

"You're not the one who got the run around! Do you know how annoying it is looking for someone when you don't have any clue as to what they look like, besides some vague descriptions?"

"That's why I came after you two!"

Akane stopped her struggling, she soon felt Ranma release her.

"What?"

"That woman with the purple hair, I think her name's Misato, told me to catch up with you two because Rei isn't a very social girl so she tends to have trouble communicating with others."

"Wish you would of told me that earlier." Akane mumbled.

"Look I've met the two you're looking for, so I have a better idea what to look for in a crowd."

"…ok then, at least we'll have some help with this." Akane said as her anger finally cooled down.

"Uh guys…" Ranma and Akane turned their attention to Ryoga now.

"I'm not trying to be rude but WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? I JUST GOT INTO TOWN, AND SOME BLACK MONSTERS START ATTACKING SOME DEFENSELESS CIVILION RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!"

"Whoa there Ryoga, calm down a moment and we'll tell you what we know." Ranma said trying to keep his friend/rival from loosing his head.

"I'm afraid an explanation will have to wait." Ranma, Akane, and Ryoga turned their attention towards Rei.

"According to my contact Nini, the Heartless are attacking two other areas in town." The news surprised the three.

"Then what are we waiting around here for, we gotta protect the town from those monsters!" Ryoga said as he nearly ran off to battle.

"There is no need; one of the areas under attack is the same area where Sensei & Shinji Ikari are at the moment. They are joined in battle by some fellow fighters; one is called Shampoo, the other is Ukyo Kuonji."

"Well if those two are fighting, then there's little to worry about." Ranma said. Akane couldn't help but agree to that, after all they are strong in their own rights…not that she'll ever say that to Shampoo anytime soon…maybe Ukyo…maybe. Even Ryoga couldn't argue with that logic.

"The second area is the most likely area we'll be needed as only Asuka Langley Soryu is fighting off the Heartless at the Tendo dojo."

"What! But what about my dad, or Mr. Saotome, or everyone else back home?" Akane asked now getting worried.

"For the moment Misato Katsuragi has gathered everyone else into the dojo, while Asuka Langley Soryu guards the only entrance however their numbers may prove too great for her alone.

"Oh no, we've got to get moving now!" With that Ranma quickly scooped up Akane and told Ryoga to get Rei.

"What?"

"Just do it, there's not enough time to argue!" Ranma said. Ryoga reluctantly went along with it, and soon they were leaping off rooftop after rooftop towards their destination: the Tendo Dojo.

* * *

"YOU CALL THAT NOURISHMENT?" *smack* "I WOULDN'T EVEN DECLARE THIS EDIBLE!" at the moment Kodachi was ordering the Heartless around, setting up for her 'darling Ranma' eventual arrival.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO SET UP THE BANNER UNTIL THE REST OF THE ROOM IS SET!"

Surprisingly the Heartless weren't doing so well with the labor work, which was not good for Kodachi as she was just getting more furious every minute the Heartless messed up.

"I told you not to rely on the Heartless for these kinds of tasks." The cloaked man said. Although his face was well hidden in his hood, Kodachi could almost tell he was smiling from the way he talked just now.

"Well then, why aren't you helping them out?" She shouted at the mysterious man, not even giving it any thought as to when he stepped into the room.

"Not in my job description." The cloaked man simply said while shrugging his shoulders.

Now Kodachi was at the boiling point, nobody ever said no (in any way, shape, or form) to her and got away scot free. Not even Ranma Saotome managed to say a simple 'no thanks' without getting blackmailed. Before she could think of some form of punishment, two fairly large knight-armor wearing Heartless walked into the room. That was when she got an idea for punishment.

"My, what great timing. You two, throw him out of my sight and into a cage!" Kodachi ordered.

"…"

When the two did nothing, she started loosing it.

"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME, I ORDER YOU TO THROW HIM INTO A CAGE THIS INSTANT!" She screamed out as she stomped her foot.

"…did you actually think you could control these two?" The cloaked man said with a smug tone.

"B-But I thought…"

"These two are part of my personal guard like my little ninja friend; they only follow my orders and mine alone. Now good day to you 'Madam'." He finished as he started strolling out of the room with the knight Heartless in tow.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"For a little stroll around town." He answered. From the way he said it, Kodachi got a chill up her spine for some reason. And she had no idea why.

As the cloaked man and the two knights walked out of Kodachis' sight, one of the knights' turned its attention to the cloaked man.

"…"

"I know you only follow the 'Docs' orders, but I had to tell her something or would you've preferred I tell her about him?"

"…"

"I thought as much, anyway I'll speak with the good Doctor soon…after I take my 'stroll'."

"…"

"What, you thought I was kidding about that?"

"…"

"Ah blow it out your non-existent ass. I need to let off some steam after dealing with that headache inducing nightmare. I mean have you even heard her laugh before, I swear it's almost like nails on a chalkboard."

"…"

"Well, good to see we're in agreement. Don't worry, I'll capture some 'specimens' while I'm at it. If I let them live that is."

* * *

As Ranma and Ryoga continued to hop from rooftop to rooftop, Ryoga took the time to get to know Rei more…well as much as she 'would' tell anyway. Not that asking from Ranma or Akane turned out any better.

"_I hope her friends are a little more open then her._" He thought.

Soon the Tendo dojo was finally in sight, however what met their eyes was something that was almost heart breaking to the youngest Tendo sister: There was smoke coming out of various places on the premises, some of the outer walls surrounding the place were knocked down (most likely from where the Heartless either stormed in or out of the place), there was even some scorch marks in various places. The moment they landed Akane quickly headed towards the dojo building with everyone following behind.

"Dad, Kasumi, Nabiki, Mr. Saotome! Where are you?"

"Akane, is that you?" Akane turned towards the source of the voice. It turned out to be a woman she knew well, she was standing there at the porch doorway. The woman was wearing a very pretty blue Kimono, her hair was brown in a braided bun. Held in her hand was something covered in a sash, the shape was long and narrow. Most likely an Umbrella Rei thought.

"Ms. Soatome?"

"Mom, when'd you get here?" Ranma asked.

"Some time before…all this happened." She said as she gestured to the surrounding area.

"Are you ok; you're not hurt are you?" Ranma asked out of worry.

"I'm just fine Ranma; with my family sword by my side those rude creatures never laid a finger on me." She said as she held up the covered item, unknowingly disproving Rei's assumption.

"That's a relief, but what about everyone else Auntie Nodoka?" Akane asked her fiancés' mother.

"Everyone is all right; That Asuka girl is worn out however and she may need some medical aid for some of her small injuries…and…" Nodoka started tearing up.

"A-And?"

"I don't know how to tell you this Akane but…They took Kasumi."

End of chapter


	12. Martial Artists and Keyblades Pt3

Hey guys I bet you thought I gave up and quit by now right? WRONG! actually my real life caught up to me...not to mention I my gaming time has been begging for some time as well so...yeah lots of things happened all at once. But all that means is I had a slightly slower time finishing this chapter, and I'm sorry for that. But that's enough from me let's get this chapter going!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the anime's mentioned in this story…if you haven't figured 'that' out by now then there's something obviously wrong with you.

"Come, it this way." Shampoo said to Marcus and Shinji as they followed her to the Tendo Dojo.

"Uh not to question you or anything Shampoo, but are you sure about this?" Shinji asked as she was leading them into a nearby alleyway.

"Yes, this way to Tendo dojo. Although Shampoo admit it actually the long way." She said with a hint of nervousness.

"Hmm, I though it was odd how we ended up zig-zagging around the place back there." Marcus said with an amused tone, and a hint of sarcasm.

"Not funny." Shampoo said with mock anger.

"Then, why don't we just go the short way?" Shinji asked, more curious then upset.

"Because Shampoo no want to deal with 'Spatula girl' right now, still have headache from stupid Mousse." She said now upset for real.

"Spatula girl?" Shinji couldn't help but ask.

"Maybe we get lucky and she out sick." Shampoo said with a hint of amusement. That is until she saw someone walk out of a nearby shop carrying a small bag of groceries, and this person was the very girl Shampoo didn't want to run into at the moment. The girl was a long haired brunette with a white bow on top of her head, she was wearing a blue kimono with the sleeves rolled up and the bottom of it pulled up into a make shift skirt & her legs were covered in black tights. On her back was something that took both Shinji and Marcus by surprise, it was a spatula much bigger then any other spatula they ever saw before. It looked like it could flip someone over as easily as flipping pancakes, and fight off someone with a sword if necessary. The 'Spatula girl' soon caught sight of the group, and started walking up to them. Any other day Shampoo would be more than willing to take her on, but like she said before, she was in no mood at the moment.

"Oh hey Shampoo. What brings you here, getting some ingredients or something?" The girl said as she approached Shampoo with a smile.

"…You in good mood today, what is going on with you?" Shampoo asked getting suspicious of her intentions.

"Oh it's just this store here was holding some ingredients I needed for a new Okonomiyaki recipe, I'm just so excited to try it out." She answered as she hugged her bags closer to her.

"Oh…that good shampoo guess, uh good luck with that." Shampoo said still surprised by her rivals' good mood. Well as long as she's in a good mood Shampoo wouldn't need to start fighting her for no reason...this time. Not that Shampoo couldn't take her she thought, it's just that it would have been bad timing is all.

"By the way Shampoo, who're your friends?" The 'Spatula girl' asked as she finally took notice of the two guys standing behind Shampoo.

"Uh hi, I'm Marcus and this is my student Shinji." Marcus said introducing himself and gesturing towards Shinji.

"Um hi." Shinji said still staring at the huge spatula.

"Nice to meet'cha, I'm Ukyo." She said with a smile.

"They here visiting from out of town, so I is showing them around." Shampoo chimed in.

"Out of town huh, well then be sure to visit my okonomiyaki shop when you get the chance, I'll make you some okonomiyaki that'll knock your taste buds out." Ukyo offered to Marcus and Shinji.

"We just might, what do you think Shinji?" Marcus said.

"Uh well, I guess we could after we meet up with the others."

"Others?" Ukyo asked.

"Yeah you see we came here as a group of five, but long story short we got separated and now Shinji and I are going to-REI!" Marcus said before shouting.

"Rei?" Shampoo and Ukyo asked out of confusion.

"Oh damn, we were going to wait for her back at the 'R.V'!" Marcus started explaining.

"Well, should we…go back and wait for Rei Marcus sir?" Shinji asked.

"I don't know if she's even there anymore, but I guess we could-"

"AAAAHH MONSTERS!" A near by girl screamed out as a large group of Heartless began to pour out of an allyway.

"Guess it'll have to wait, we got trouble." Marcus said. Immediately he got into a battle ready stance with his keyblade (appearing once again in a flash of light) in hand, Shinji followed suit and got ready for the upcoming fight.

"Where you get those funny looking weapons?" Shampoo asked.

"Not important." Marcus answered. "Just get to safety if you can't fight!"

"No way, Shampoo is proud Amazon," Shampoo started to say as she got into her martial arts stance. "And will not run from fight!"

"And I'm not going anywhere either." Ukyo said as she put her groceries down in a safe place, she then proceeded to take the giant spatula into both hands holding it like a sword. "After all, it's a martial artist duty to protect others!"

At this Marcus smiled at them. "Alright then, you two can help." He said to the two of them.

"Are you ready of this Shinji?" Marcus asked.

"I g-guess so."

"No second guessing yourself here, it's either yes or no right now."

"Um…"

"Listen if you can't do it Shinji, then go help the civilians get to safety." Marcus told him. Upon hearing those words, it jogged Shinji's memories (and some hurt feelings) of the first time he arrived at Nerv base, and was reunited with his father.

* * *

"_WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SEND FOR ME FATHER? Shinji demanded as his eyes where tearing up._

"_Because, I have a use for you."Gendo said to Shinji from up on the catwalk of the Eva holding bay._

"…_But why, why me?"_

"_Because, there's no one else who can." Gendo Answered with a cold unemotional tone._

"_NO I CAN'T, I've never even seen anything like this before." Shinji said referring to the giant mechanoid known as Evangelion Unit 01. "THERE'S NO WAY I CAN DO THIS!"_

"_You will be instructed."_

"…_But still, there's no way…I CAN'T PILOT THAT THING!"_

"…_If you're going to do it then do it, if not then leave!" He said as his tone increased with his anger._

* * *

"But…why…why tell me this after all that training with the keyblade?" Shinji couldn't help but ask.

"What weird boy talking about?" Shampoo asked Ukyo.

"Ya got me." Ukyo answered shrugging her shoulders.

"Listen Shinji, Someone needs to look out for the innocent bystanders, or they're going to get caught in the crossfire. And nobody wants that." Marcus told the teen. Shinji didn't say much after that, how could he say anything with that logic. Yet something inside him told him to not let it go so easily, but before he could say anything-

"Besides…it wouldn't be right if I just threw you into an actual fight you weren't ready for, especially one this big in numbers." Marcus said to his young apprentice. Shinji remained silent.

"So go take care of the bystanders, and we'll handle-"

"No!"

Marcus was caught off guard by Shinji's sudden outburst.

"What?" He asked.

"I…I can handle this, I can fight them!" Shinji said. Marcus was surprised by Shinji's new bravado, but then again who was he to deny the boy his chance to test his skills even if Marcus had his doubts.

"Are you sure about this, do you really feel you're ready?"

"Y-yes I am."

"…Alright then Shinji, you win." Marcus said with a sigh and a proud smirk on his face. "I'll take care of the civilians, while you three take care of the Heartless!" Marcus said now giving out new orders.

"That's nice and everything you guys, but in case you haven't noticed WE'RE SURROUNDED BY THOSE THINGS!" Ukyo said pointing out the fact that while Marcus and Shinji were talking, the Heartless took the opportunity to cut off all escape roots.

"Oh…woops." Marcus said scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Oh no. Marcus sir, what do we do now?" Shinji asked somewhat panicking about the bad situation.

"Stick to the plan." Marcus said as he raised his keyblade over his head. "Get ready, I'm gonna make an opening. When I do; unleash all hell on the off balanced ones." Marcus said to the teens loud enough for only those three to hear.

At that moment the Heartless were just about to make their move, when Marcus made his first. He quickly swung his keyblade straight to the ground, before it made contact with the concrete street floor he called out "Shockwave!" Once his blade hit, the ground shook violently throwing all the Heartless either off balance or up into the air. What was strange to Shinji, Shampoo, and Ukyo was that they weren't feeling the ground shake underneath them like the Heartless were. Before they realized it Marcus had stood in some sort of 'Samurai's final attack' like stance with his right arm (the one with the keyblade in hand) crossing his chest to his left side where he could hold it with both hands ready for a large swing. His right foot was planted down in front of him while his left foot was planted behind him in a runners starting position. Before he could be questioned about it, Marcus vanished in the blink of an eye. Leaving an after image where he once stood, only to reappear the next second past the entire small army of heartless with his keyblade now thrust out in front of him. Not even a second later, a large number of Heartless exploded into black smoke. It started from in front of the spot Marcus once stood, all the way to where he now was.

"Whoa…"

"How he do that?"

"That's some friend you made their Shampoo."

"_Shinji, focus on the Heartless while I take care of things on this end!_" Marcus said to Shinji over his com-link.

"Y-Yes Sir." Shinji answered.

"Who you talking to?" Shampoo asked.

"Marcus on my com-link, now LET'S GO GET'EM!"

"…Shinji, I know we just met an all, but that was pretty weak."

"Shampoo agree with Ukyo."

Shinji just grunted/sighed in embarrassment as his only response.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the Tendo Dojo, things were getting almost as bad there as with Marcus and the others. Asuka was busy fighting off any Heartless that even looked at her funny as Misato tried to get the Tendo household to safety.

"Everyone, this way!" Misato called out to the group as she led them towards the Dojo building. Once inside Misato asked-

"Is everyone alright?"

"I believe so yes, but what in the world were those 'things' and where did they come from?" Mr. Tendo asked.

"It's a long story, but what I want to know is why are they even going after us like this?" Misato said.

* * *

**Earlier **

_Asuka sat on the porch looking up at the sky, the whole time wondering when everyone would hurry up and get here so they could eat. Kasumi had said earlier she was going to start cooking when everyone arrived. This of course left Asuka more than upset, but without food in her stomach Asuka didn't have the fuel to her anger like before. That and something about being around Kasumi seemed to defuse her anger almost immediately, almost like just being around her gave one a feel of…calmness…or something like that. Either way the situation left the redheaded Keybarer with nothing to do, even the T.V didn't have anything good on at the moment._

"_Damn it I wish those idiots would get back here now, or at the least something would happen to help pass the time." Asuka mumbled out loud to herself._

"_I'd be careful saying things like that if I were you."_

_Asuka turned to the unknown voice and found it to belong to a girl she hadn't seen before. She was a brunette with short hair, and brown eyes, and was wearing a school uniform Asuka was familiar with seeing as she wore the same blue and white uniform back home._

"_Yeah well you're not me, and what do you care anyway?"_

"_Normally I don't, but you're new around here and I thought I'd give you some friendly advice considering you're one of my sisters' guests." The girl said with an almost knowing tone._

"_Your sister?" Asuka asked._

"_Nabiki Tendo, the middle Tendo sister at your service...for a price of course, and you must be Asuka right?" She said introducing herself as she rubbed her fingers in that way that says 'I listen to cash only'._

"_Yeah but how did-"_

"_Kasumi told me when I got in."_

"_Hmm, that so?"_

"_Yeah, but let's get back on topic; around here saying things like 'Wish I could find someone that could challenge me' or 'I hope something exciting happens soon' is just asking for trouble." Nabiki said in a mock voice during the 'examples'._

"_Uh-huh and I'm the queen of Tokyo."_

_Nabiki shrugged her shoulders as she started to walk off. "Fine have it your way your majesty, but don't say I didn't warn you."_

"_HA, yeah right, what's the worst that could happen?"_

* * *

**Present time**

"…who knows?" Asuka said blushing a bit while Nabiki gave her a knowing look.

"O-K then… is everyone here? Nabiki?" Misato started calling around.

"Present of course." Nabiki said as Asuka grabbed something to help barricade the door.

"Alright, Asuka?"

"I'm busy damn it!" The red head said as she held the only thing she could find to barricade the door with: a wooden post.

"Mr. Tendo?"

"Right… here." The head of the house hold said as he tried to catch his breath after his attempt to fight off one of those black creatures…

* * *

"_AAAHH THIS WAS A HORRIBLE PLAN!_" _Mr. Tendo said as his foot passed right thru his opponent without harming it. _

_*Crash* _

_And flew right into the Kitchen foot first breaking several things at once, including what little pride/bravery he had left._

* * *

Long story short: it didn't go so well.

"Ok then, Mr…. Saotome?" Misato asked with uncertainty.

The only response she got was "Grrr burr grrr?" followed by a wooden sign that said "_I'm fine, did anyone bring any food with them?_" all done by a full grown panda bear.

"That is one of THE strangest things I've ever seen. How is he even a panda bear in the first place?" Misato asked thinking back to how it happened right before her eyes.

* * *

"_Together Tendo?"_

"_Let's do it Saotome!" _

_Mr. Saotome grabbed Mr. Tendo by his arm as he quickly and literally threw his friend at the black monster that was blocking the groups path, Mr. Tendo for his part used the momentum to perform a high jump kick at the creature the whole time screaming a war cry until-_

"_AAAHH THIS WAS A HORRIBLE PLAN!_" _Mr. Tendo said as his foot passed right thru his opponent without harming it. _

_*Crash* _

_And flew right into the Kitchen foot first breaking several things at once, including what little pride/bravery he had left._

"_O-k that didn't go so well." Mr. Saotome said right before a strong stream of water sprayed both the Heartless (knocking it down face first) and Mr. Saotome at the same time causing him to suddenly turn into a panda right before the off worlders eyes._

* * *

"Long story short, he's cursed." Nabiki said bluntly.

"Cursed? CURSED? WHAT THE HELL KINDA CURSE TURNS YOU INTO A PANDA!" Asuka screamed out as she continued to hold the Heartless off.

"The kind that reacts to hot & cold water." Nabiki said without missing a beat.

"Hmph, whatever."

"Enough you two, we're in trouble right now there's no time to argue." Misato said trying to keep things calm.

"WAIT! Has anyone seen Kasumi?" Mr. Tendo asked as he looked around the room for his eldest daughter.

The panda bear that was Mr. Saotome raised a sign that said 'You mean she wasn't behind us?'

Soon the realization started to sink in for everyone in the room.

"Oh no, Asuka quick open that door we need to get Kasumi now!" Misato ordered.

"Damn it!" Asuka said as she followed said orders and quickly rammed her way through the Heartless that stood right outside the door using the very wooden post that was keeping them out. Without missing a beat Asuka put the post down on its side and gave it a push, rolling it into the Heartless. While most managed to avoid it, some ended up getting rolled on. During the slight confusion Asuka quickly caught sight of a large Heartless called a 'Large body' carrying an unconscious Kasumi over its shoulder, and waddling off with her.

"Hold it you!" Asuka called out as she charged at the 'Large body'. Even when the remaining Heartless still standing tried to stop her, all they managed to do was slow her down slightly, not enough to let the 'Large body' escape with the girl in tow. Naturally the 'Large body' wasn't usually capable of too much individual thought or even the smartest of the Heartless, but at the moment only one thing was running through its mind 'Why did I have to have short legs?' (Which was an understatement considering a 'Large body' has little to no legs, just feet.)

'It' quickly tried to waddle as fast as it could go to get as far as possible from the angry redhead that was making short work of 'its' fellow Heartless, but sadly with a hostage in tow 'its' fastest means of travel was a no go. Bouncing away or sliding on its round beach ball of a torso was a big no no as it was told when it came to carrying a hostage (although the 'Large body' was not told why…or it just didn't listen, it was hard to tell).

Thankfully there was a plan for this moment.

* * *

"And when Asuka got close to Kasumi, she was cut off by this tall sword wielding Heartless with wings."

"You mean an 'Invisible'?"Shinji tried to clarify.

"I guess that was it, anyway it started fighting off Asuka while the big guy escaped through some sorta… black hole or something." Misato explained to Shinji, Shampoo, Ukyo, Ranma, Akane, Rei, Ryoga, and Marcus (he was listening in over the Holo-link).

"Before Asuka could go after her, Ms. Saotome showed up and well you could say things…kinda got out of hand from there." At that moment Ms. Saotome walked in on the conversation.

"I'm sorry, if I hadn't come by when I did-"

"Don't say that, even if things didn't turn out how we expected them to, Asuka still managed to get to you in time." Misato reassured her.

* * *

**Sometime earlier**

"_HEY, GET AWAY FROM HER!" Asuka screamed out as she assaulted the Heartless that tried to attack Ms. Saotome. Despite her new training, the sheer number of Heartless was too much for Asuka alone. With every Heartless Asuka managed to swipe away from the woman, two Heartless would attack her from her vulnerable side until-_

"_There's *huff* too many of them, I-I can't *huff* keep this up." An exhausted Asuka mumbled._

"_You *huff* you have to get out of here while *huff* while you…" Asuka couldn't finish her sentence as she collapsed onto the floor from her injuries and slight blood loss._

"_Oh no are you alright?" Ms. Saotome said with worry for the girl that did all that she could to protect her. She checked to see if the young girl was still breathing, thankfully she was just unconscious. The Heartless were watching and (from what she could assume) laughing with triumph over the defeated keybarer, however their little victory was short lived as Ms. Saotome was not as amused as the Heartless._

"_How dare you assault this brave girl before my eyes, you cowardly beasts!" Ms. Saotome demanded as she held up her cloth covered family sword, and began to unveil it. _

"_You will know the meaning of painful punishment by Nodoka Saotome." The Matriarch of the Saotome family said as she unsheathed her sword with an unwavering intent to keep her promise to these monsters. It was at that moment the Heartless found someone as threatening as any keybarer could ever be…maybe even more._

* * *

**Present time**

"But still-"

"Hey, don't worry about it mom, their taken care of and your safe." Ranma said as he thought he owed Asuka a token of thanks for keeping his mom safe.

"He's right about that Auntie Nodoka." Akane said.

"Hi-yah is good to know Ranma's mother is ok." Shampoo said.

"That's for sure." Ukyo agreed with Shampoo. Something that was rare for her on any other occasion.

"So where is Asuka?" Shinji asked.

"Soryu is resting at the moment." Rei answered.

"Not anymore she's not." Everyone turned to find the girl in question was on the porch, leaning on a nearby support beam still tired out by the looks of her.

"Asuka, you're up."

"Thanks for stating the obvious Baka." Asuka told Shinji while trying to holding back a developing blush, something that didn't escape Ukyo's eyes. Asuka then looked at Rei and said nothing to the blue haired albino.

"Should you even be up in your condition?" Ranma asked.

"I'll be fine after I get those little bastards for doing this to me." She answered back.

"Well it looks like you've still got that fire burning in you Asuka, that's good to hear." Marcus said to his powerhouse Apprentice. He could tell right from the beginning Asuka wasn't one to just stay down, and this proved his point.

The panda that was Mr. Saotome held up a sign that said 'She's pretty tough.'

"There's no question there strange… sign wielding… panda. Anyway Misato, this 'Black hole' you mentioned, did it look like a swirling vortex of black and purple colors?" Marcus asked.

"Well yeah it did…" Misato answered.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Marcus said with a grim tone.

"Why, what's that mean?" Akane asked.

"I can't really say right now, I'm kinda busy with something over where I'm at. Which is why I'm letting this very wise woman fill you in while I take care of some business here." Marcus then disappeared off the holo-link and a new person appeared in his place. This woman was old…really old, not to mention only three to three and a half feet tall at the most, her wooden Cain was even taller than she was. Her very long hair was grey with age, and her outfit was of a Chinese design.

"Hi-yah, Great Grandmother, what you doing with armored man?" Shampoo asked surprised to find the Amazon Matriarch known as Cologne with Marcus.

"Well, when you took so long to get this young man to meet with me I decided to take the direct approach, and meet with him instead." The ancient Chinese woman answered.

"Hold on a minute, how come she can speak perfect Japanese and you can't." Asuka said to Shampoo.

"Shut up, Shampoo still learning to speak good Japanese, besides..." Shampoo paused a moment to pose in a cute manner. "It make me even more cuter, no?"

Asuka just stared at her with her arms crossed and leering eyes. "…No it doesn't, it makes you look like an airhead with a speech impediment."

"You take that back or Shampoo will-"

"ENOUGH YOU TWO!" Yelled the elder Cologne, shutting up both girls instantly.

"This is no time for petty arguments." She continued.

"Asuka you shouldn't say such mean things to people like that, especially to teammates." Marcus said while still off-screen of the holo-link. Both girls just leered at each other before giving off a 'hmph' and turning away from one another.

"I'm sorry about that; Asuka can be a hand full sometimes." Misato said to the elderly woman.

"It is no trouble, after all she is still young and prone to being a… little emotional."

"I CAN hear you two, you know." An Irritated Asuka said.

"But I'm getting off subject, those portals you mentioned are a sign that someone is behind these attacks around town. Only a being with the power to control the Heartless without effort could ever use such a power."

"Heartless? Is that what we've been fighting so far?" Ranma asked now interested in this new info.

The old woman nodded a yes. "These beings as their name suggests are creatures of different forms that have no heart of their own, so as part of their instinct they steal others hearts. Thus turning that person into a Heartless as well, leaving the victims previous self to disappear into non-existence." Just about everyone gasped at what Cologne said, except Mr. Tendo (who 'throughout the entire conversation' was weeping for his eldest daughters' safety) started to full out ball his eyes out screaming out 'Kasumi' and 'why Kasumi'. Mr. and Ms. Saotome were right by his side trying to comfort him.

"That's just…horrible; I can't even imagine being forced to live like that." Ukyo said.

"Me neither." Akane said agreeing with Ukyo.

"But then if only someone that can control Heartless can make those portals-" Ryoga started to say.

"Then who's the one controlling the Heartless?" Ranma finished.

"That we cannot be certain of." Cologne answered.

"But Nini has a theory." Marcus started saying once again off screen.

"So far the Heartless have been only targeting specific areas; the shopping district where Shinji, Shampoo, Ukyo and I were at. That construction site where Ryoga, Ranma, Rei and Akane were fighting. And the Tendo dojo where the rest of you are now. All of these areas were the only ones hit for some reason." Marcus said as a Holographic map of Nerima that highlighted the mentioned areas.

"From what Nini was able to gather, the Heartless seem to be coming from this large Mansion…here." Marcus said as the holo-map zoomed in on the said location. Once every nerimian saw where the area was, some gasped while others got angry.

"But that's the Kuno's Mansion estate." Nabiki said shocked at this.

"That might explain why the Heartless are attacking us." Ranma said.

"Why would the Kunos' get involved with the Heartless?" Ryoga couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know, but they've always been somewhat insane on more than one occasion." Ukyo said.

"But this is too much, even for the Kuno's. What could possibly get them to go so far as to control the Heartless?" Ranma asked not believing this theory of Tatewaki Kuno or his sister Kodachi could even be capable of such things.

"I'm not sure, but one thing's for sure…" Akane started to say.

"I'M GOING TO BEAT THE ANSWERS OUT OF THEM, RIGHT AFTER I GET KASUMI BACK!" Akane said with an angery tone and a few dried tears on her cheeks.

"Akane, we don't even know if she was taken to the mansion or not." Nabiki said trying to speak reason to her little sister.

"I DON'T CARE, either way if I can get my hands on one of them I CAN FIND OUT WHERE THEIR HOLDING HER. AND IF NONE OF YOU ARE GOING TO HELP ME, THEN I'LL FIND HER MYSELF AND DON'T EVEN THINK YOU CAN STOP ME FROM DOING THIS!" The angered girl said with new tears threatening to form in her eyes.

For a moment the room was silent until an unlikely source spoke up. "I will go with you." Rei answered.

"Wha-what, you will Rei?" A slight teary Akane asked. Rei just nodded her head in yes.

"I-if Rei's going then I will too." Shinji said.

"I can't let you two make me look bad, so I'll go too. Besides not only am I going to pay those bastards back for the cheap shots, but for stealing away the only person who offered us a good free meal." Asuka said with her proud and savage smile on her face once again. Misato couldn't help but sweatdrop at that last comment, and think to herself '_was that directed at me?_'

"I'm going too." Ranma said putting a comforting hand on Akane's shoulder.

"You can always count on me Akane." Ryoga said.

"Shampoo join in too, Kasumi too too nice to leave to evil monsters." Shampoo added in.

"We've had our differences in the past Akane, but we've always kept our rivalry between the four of us. So count me in too, no one messes with family members and gets away with it." Ukyo said as she was referring to herself, Shampoo, Akane, and Kodachi. (Although to be fair Kodachi didn't really seem to be part of their battle for Ranma to Ukyo)

"When I'm done on my end, I'll be there to join in." Marcus said now sticking his head into view of the Holo-link.

"I have told you what I know; as much as I'd like to help I'm going to have to leave the rest up to all of you." Cologne said.

"As much as I'd like to help, I'm no fighter…But I am good at getting information when needed." Nabiki said.

Akane couldn't believe how many people wanted to help her save Kasumi, it almost made her start crying again. She quickly wiped what tears were left on her face and smiled at everyone.

"Thank you everyone...this means a lot to me."

"Alright then, we have fighters ready to go, I suggest we make some quick preparations and then go kick some ass!" Misato said rallying the troops.

Everyone joined in and said "YEAH!"

* * *

*Beep* went the Holo-link as the elderly Cologne turned off the device.

"That's Ranma for you, always ready for a fight." Cologne said.

"Seems like his heart's in the right place that's for sure. He's gonna need it for this fight." Marcus said with a hint of humor…but not much under the circumstances. Currently Marcus and Cologne were standing near the end of an alleyway where they had begun to investigate something the Amazon elder thought she would never see outside of war or those horror films with psycho killers.

At the end of the alleyway was the sight of a grisly murder of (from what Marcus could tell) three high school girls. One of the girls looked to be burned to death, with various scorch marks on different parts on her body; the most noticeable one's being on her stomach and half of her face.

The second girl was blacken from something that looked to be frostbite and slightly chard skin possibly from a flame, anything else about the girls' death could not be told without a thorough examination, something Marcus couldn't do without giving the local authorities an excuse to throw him in a cell or hold him for questioning. (If that happened he'd end up completely meddling in this worlds' affairs)

The last girls' corpse was cut open from her collar bone down to her hip leaving her innards showing almost like a frog dissection in science class. The three girls' faces were stuck forever with a mask of horrified shock.

"At my age you would think I would be use to seeing death in its many forms, but nothing as unnatural as this. Do you think they'll run into whatever did this to these girls?" Cologne said as she couldn't help but pity what happened to these poor girls, they weren't even able to fight back by the looks of it.

"I hope not, but just in case, I'll need to be there to keep them safe…when the time calls for it of course. After all I can't do everything for my students, or else they'll never learn how to fight from experience." Marcus answered as he clinched his armor covered left fist in anger at the horrible sight.

"Ah yes, there is no better teacher then experience itself." Cologne said.

"True, but I'm not going to let them experience something like…this." Marcus said referring to the gory scene not even three feet from him and the elder Amazon.

"Who could do such a thing to defenseless high school students, and in such a horrible fashion?" The elder woman asked once again looking upon the three corpses' that were once normal girls.

"I don't know but one thing's for sure, when I find whoever did this; they're going to answer for this crime…one way or another!"

End of Chapter


End file.
